Extra Sexurity: Vol 3
by ExtoPlasm
Summary: She will come back. She always does. I have a place for her...
1. Prologue: I am still here

Willow blinked her eyes. A squishing noise sounded from her eyelids. They felt like they hadn't been opened for years.

The purple haired girl had been propped up against the wall in a sitting position. She looked around her location. The last thing she remembered was being stuck inside a Spring Bunnie suit within the Safe Room of the Fazbar. But looking around her current location, she wasn't in the Safe Room anymore.

The location was unclear and unfamiliar; the walls were a different color and texture. The posters strewn about the wall were recognizable but used to be rolled up in the Safe Room. There were her own children's drawings taped up everywhere, littering the rotten textured walls. Fake cobwebs hung creepily from the ceiling with realistic spiders lining them. Light fixtures flickered, as though the bulbs were broken and needed to be replaced. Everything looked decrepit, ready to fall apart at the slightest breeze.

Willow got up, and loud creaking filled the room. She noticed the sounds were coming from her own body. She remembered she was trapped in the Spring Bunnie suit, so the creaking was probably just rusted parts and wires popping. She groaned as she breathed, a deep squeak emitting with every pained exhale. She stood to her full height, about six feet because of her ears. The woman turned her head left and right, observing her surroundings. Nothing but the posters looked familiar, so where was she and how did she get there?

Willow started to walk. A deep groan creaked from her knees and arms as she swung them back and forth, forcing herself into a painful stride. Her ears bounced around on top of her head, swaying rhythmically to her walk. She walked around for thirty minutes, looking for at least a hint of where the fuck she was.

She approached a dimly lit room that glowed an eerie red. The shells of broken robots littered several corners. A poster of the same Spring Bunnie suit Willow was trapped in hung loosely on the wall with only one thumbtack set dead in the center of her forehead. The eerie red glow came from the exit sign just above the door to the outside.

Willow touched the door and immediately shot her hand back. The metal was heavy and freezing cold, feeling more like layers and layers of concrete topped with ice than an exit door. The trapped woman pushed on the door with all her might, putting all her body weight into it, but all that happened was her hands turned a disgusting blue and the door didn't even budge.

She was trapped, both in the suit and in the building.

Willow pounded at the door, screaming for help. Each painful slam reminded her that no matter how hard she tried, she wasn't getting out of there anytime soon.

And, at this rate, ever.

Willow turned around, the bottoms of her fuzzy, mechanical hands bright blue and turning black. She sank to the floor and sat down. She put her face in her hands and began to cry, knowing she was stuck in every way possible. Even if she could manage to escape, there was no way she could walk around in public gored by a springlock suit.

Then she heard a cry from another room within the building. It at first sounded like creaking pipes, but after closer examination, it sounded like...like…

"MOM!"

The cry echoed through the building, scaring Willow. She could barely hear it, but she knew what it had to be. She got up and tried to run, the springlocks restricting free movement. She attempted a sprint, managing to make it a far distance before a springlock gave out and made her collapse on the floor. One last springlock shot into the back of her leg as she looked up, hoping she was close enough to see the source of the cry.

She began to crawl, pulling her broken body towards an audible panicked shriek of helplessness. Willow continued to make her way to the end of the hallway, meeting up with the outline of a teenage girl. She was crying, her hair tied with a bow and her limbs horrifically mangled. Her eyes glowed green, gray streaks pouring from both irises.

"Ivy…" Willow whispered, and reached out. She crawled an extra distance forward, coming closer to the girl but not quite able to reach her.

Willow struggled to get up to walk just a little closer to her dead daughter. "It's okay, Ivy, I'm here," she struggled to say, "I am still here. Don't worry."

She stumbled, lost her balance, and fell face first back onto the floor. She looked back up, but the ghostly outline had completely disappeared.

"No…" Willow whispered, "No...Ivy...please…"

She put her head back on the ground, closing her eyes and preparing not to open them again.

"I TOLD you!" cried a female voice, "I TOLD you that thing could walk!"

"Oh, no, not again," groaned a male voice, "Some teenagers probably got in here and fucked with it. Look, its legs are busted."

Willow blinked. Were they talking about her?

She tried to struggle, but her efforts were in vain. The springlocks must have jammed.

"NO! I swear, it's alive! It can walk, it can talk! I KNOW it can!" the female voice protested.

"Of course it can walk and talk," the male voice said, "That's what these fucking things were built to DO."

Willow felt her body being picked up. Two sets of hands pulled her up by her armpits and hoisted her into a standing position. "Alright, perfect," said another male voice, "Just hand me a screwdriver, and I might be able to fix 'er."

Willow waited a minute or so, when suddenly a sharp pain jammed into her right calf. She heard loud squeaking and parts clicking, signs that her endoskeleton was being repaired.

"Dammit!" cried the other male voice, "Ugh. That's disgusting. Now we gotta get it repaired."

"Should be pretty easy," said the male voice, "All we have to do is find someone to repair it and take it to a shop."

"Not really," the female voice said, "We still gotta take care of that dead body in there."

Willow shuddered. The springlocks clicked as she felt a cold chill run down her skinless spine.

"That's disgusting," said the male voice, "I'm pretty sure none of us are doin' THAT. Look, let's just make sure she never opens her mouth, and we'll spray her with Freshie or something like that. Nobody'll be the wiser."

"Someone's gonna be suspicious," the other male voice argued.

"I'm not scraping that dead bitch out," the female voice insisted.

"I'm surprised we were even given legal permission to use her," the male voice said, "I mean, the law would REALLY have to change for us to use a real corpse as a prop."

"Hey, if Poltergeist can do it, so can we," the other male voice said, "We just have to say it's a prop, slather it in cleaning oils, and bam! We're good."

"I'm not so sure," said the female voice, "What'll the repairman say if we hand a dead body to them?"

"We'll tell them it's a really complicated wax figure," the male voice said, "I'm sure they'll fall for it if we act like it's true."

"Where the fuck are we even gonna FIND a repair shop to fix her?" the other male voice asked, "The franchise is-HAS BEEN-dead for over a decade. Like, thirty years ago. How many people could there possibly be for us to contact and fix this piece of trash?"

Willow glared inside the suit. "Fuck you too," she thought.

"I dunno," said the male voice, "Maybe there's a building manual or something? Look, we'll go back to FredBare's Strip Club and see if we can find a construction booklet for springlock robots. Larry, you take her to your place for now, and send her back in when we find that manual."

"Why me!?" asked the other male voice, apparently named Larry, "Why not you or Avigan?"

"Because we're the gatherers," the male voice said, "Avigan and I have to find things while you attend to the maintenance around here."

"I guess," Larry groaned, "Okay, FINE. Lemme have her. I'll keep her in my basement or something while you guys look for the building instructions."

"Alright," the female voice said, "Come on, Larry, I'll help you load her into your truck."

"Thanks," Larry said, "Okay. I'll take the front, you take her feet."

Willow felt herself be pulled backwards while two sets of hands held her by her armpits and her ankles as she was dragged out of the building into the blinding daylight and the cool autumn air. A few clouds had gathered in the sky, but had not blocked the sunlight from the parking lot.

"Did you see that?" asked the female. Willow looked at her, seeing a slightly beautiful redhead wearing a black jacket and a white shirt beneath. All Willow could see in her field of vision was everything above the girl's waist. She had pale skin and orange freckles lining her cheeks. Her fingernails were painted black and her ears were pierced in several areas. She looked half goth, half some bubbly cute girl.

"See what?" asked Larry. "I swear that thing is looking at me!" the female voice cried, worriedly looking Willow in the eyes.

"Look, Avi," Larry said, "I can't see her from where I'm standing, but I'm guessing you're seeing things again. Come on, let's keep walking."

The girl grunted and continued. The two heaved Willow into the back of Larry's pickup, and the man drove away with the corpse in the back. Willow basked in the sunlight the whole drive there.

Larry set Willow down in his basement, attempting to sit her down in a chair. He broke down, gasping and panting. "Sorry," he apologized, "It's not that you're heavy, it's that I'm lazy and I have asthma."

He looked at the unresponsive rabbit. "I'm talking to a dead person," he said, shaking his head.

Willow stared ahead at the black male, wearing a green jacket with a Geometry Dash shirt on. His hair was flat and curly, shaven down about a centimeter above his scalp. His eyes were a deep brown, filled with life and intensity. He wore ripped jeans, clearly showing his knees and calves, with a black leather belt loosened about two notches. He was pretty attractive, in physical being.

He stood up, looking down at the broken robot. It was dilapidated, torn apart in several places and grossly deconstructed. Its entire exterior was littered with holes, and the fabric that originally covered the legs were completely gone. All that remained were skeletal and fleshy legs, taking a lot out of the beauty that the robot originally had. Its face was still cute, sure, but the body looked soaked with dry blood and torn stitches. The left strap of the tank top looked ready to fall off, a result of neglect and decay.

Larry sighed. "Your clothes sure have taken a beating, haven't they?" he asked. All Willow could do was sit quietly and helplessly as her whole body was paralyzed.

"I'm gonna hate to do this," Larry said, "But if you're gonna be the star attraction of our shindig, you're gonna need your clothes washed. Excuse my peeking…"

Larry knelt down and began to take off Willow's clothes. He stripped off her tank top first, careful not to tear the old fabric. Her artificial breasts dropped out of the garment, jiggling in place for half a second. Small holes all over her chest leaked trickles of blood, staining the fur red. The nipples that were originally golden yellow were now a sickly green amongst the tainted fuzz. The round, lavish breasts looked like they hadn't aged a day and were well-protected by the fabric of the tank top, but the excessive bleeding made them look a bit tattered and unappealing.

Next were the jorts. Larry blew out a long breath of air as he knelt down and fiddled with the button keeping the pants together. He finally managed to pop it out of the hole, discovering a zipper just underneath it. He gripped the zipper, pulling it downward and revealing the robot's flashy purple underwear. He wrapped his thumbs around the waistband of both garments and slipped them off the broken rabbit's wide thighs. A sickly trail of thick blood came with the articles of clothing, making Larry gag. A rotten stench emerged from the garments, not surprising considering the years of filth being piled atop them. He held his nose as he gathered all the clothing into his arms, stood up and threw them in the washing machine just twenty feet away. He set all the correct dials, added the detergent, and left them to wash.

The tired worker stared at the animatronic, almost entranced by her body. It was built so perfectly, put together in such a way that even in its current state she was beautiful.

Larry walked up to her, standing at full height. He stared at the broken suit, half wondering how to fix her, half if anybody would notice if she was fucked.

Larry gulped, looking around warily. He leaned over, putting his hand directly onto the rabbit's right breast and giving it a gentle squeeze. Willow nearly jumped in shock.

She could feel his hand.

She didn't move, fearing she would snap more locks shut and breaking her suit further. She simply blinked, looking Larry dead in the eye.

Larry jumped back in surprise. His face expressed sheer terror as he looked at the rabbit suit.

"Oh my god," he whispered, "Are...are you...alive in there?"

Willow said nothing.

"Um…" Larry said quietly, "Okay. Uh...I'm going to ask you some questions now. Blink once for yes, twice for no."

Willow blinked.

"Okay. Umm...question one: Are you okay?"

Willow blinked twice.

"Oh," Larry said, "I'm sorry to hear that. Is there anything I can do to help?"

Willow blinked twice.

"Dammit," Larry muttered, "Okay. So...you're dead...but not really?"

Willow blinked.

Larry put a hand to his mouth. "Shit," he whispered, "Are you mad I squeezed your tit?"

Willow blinked twice.

"Enraged? Furious? Any other mad synonyms just so we're clear?"

Willow blinked twice.

"You mean you really don't care that someone you hardly know just took a handful of your titty?"

Willow blinked twice.

Larry's heartbeat sped up. This was really creeping him out. He was actually communicating with a dead body.

"Is there any way to fix you?" Larry asked.

Willow blinked.

"Great!" Larry said, "Oh, wait a minute, one last thing: do you mind being a part of our show?"

Willow blinked twice.

"No way," he said, eyes wide, "I don't believe this."

The worker slipped out his phone and began texting Avigan's number.

"Dude! You're not gonna believe this! It talked to me!"

An excited response came back:

"C, Lary!? I TOLd u she was alive! Sh tell u how to fix her?"

"Not yet, she's communicating through blinking."

"OMG! Were findin that manul. stay their!"

"*there" Larry corrected, "Hurry!"

Larry turned off his phone, and his eyes locked with the naked animatronic. The girl inside blinked again, seemingly in a relaxed state. Help was on the way.

"Sorry again for grabbing your breast," Larry apologized, "You're real hot, you know that?" Willow closed her eyes in the suit.

"Well, I hope we can fix you," Larry said, "It'd be fucking sick if you could be in our show."

Larry stuck around in the basement, keeping the woman company as she sat in the chair, limp and naked. Larry sat just next to the woman, his back to her as though he were trying to avoid eye contact. Which he was. Her bloodshot eyes honestly freaked him the fuck out.

Around nine in the morning the next day, Larry had found a text that told him Avigan had found the instruction booklet, and all that needed to be done was to pop the third backbone in place and screw the jaw piece together.

"Seems simple enough," Larry said to himself. He got up and walked out of the basement, coming back with a hammer and a set of screwdrivers. He got the robotic lagomorph to lay on the floor belly-down while he worked. It wasn't as easy as it sounded; several parts stuck together as though it was glued together, and red chunks came out in batches as the backbone was snapped back in place. And it took him four times to find the right screwdriver to fix the jaw piece. When he eventually did, he was hot and tired from not getting any sleep last night.

Larry sat the robot up again, admiring his hard work and perseverance. He nodded, wiping his forehead and briefly congratulating himself on a job well done.

As he got up to put his tools away, he heard a mechanical whirring behind him. Turning around, he looked in horror as he saw that the woman in the suit was gone.

Larry began to panic as he lost sight of the broken robot, becoming anxious that at any moment it could potentially slaughter him if it wanted.

The maintenance worker sped up the stairs to put all his tools in the garage, and managed to do so without anything happening to him.

He wasn't so lucky on the way back.

"Hey there, handsome. Thanks for fixing me. I feel like I owe you…"

 **Wow, a lot of people requested a third installment! Thank you all so much for keeping me motivated! I apologize for the late upload, but I'll try to be a lot more consistent from now on! Once again, I am STILL a virgin as of now (yes, STILL), so any details concerning sexual intercourse are completely accidental. Also, I encourage anyone who has a question or a compliment to private message me, and I'll respond to you ask quick as I can! Thanks for reading, and I'll see you this Saturday with a brand new chapter!**


	2. Chapter 1: Isabella

Spine jumped back into his swivel seat and put his hands on the comfy black material coating the arms. He pushed up his glasses and observed his current location.

Spine Smith was seventeen years old, turning eighteen in December just a month later. He had deep brown hair, so dark it was almost black. He sported a long green splotch of dye on the right side of his bangs, protruding obviously yet softly. The green was slightly fading, but very slowly.

The teen wore an official suit for the job: a purple shirt and tie paired with black jeans. It wasn't very comfortable to Spine - he was used to wearing looser clothing - but whatever let him keep this job he would do.

Spine wasn't that tall; then again, neither were his parents. He wore thick glasses over his brownish eyes, cursed for eternity to wear them because his eyes were so damn terrible. His nails were also short, an effect of genetically receiving the irresistible urge to bite his nails when he was anxious.

Which was a lot.

Despite his tough-looking exterior, Spine was actually one of the nicest folks in his school. He never showed it, of course, as doing so would reveal his soft interior and make him more vulnerable, but regardless that emotional and caring bundle of hope was still there.

In this situation, showing strength wasn't too important. Nobody was monitoring him this time around. HE was in charge of the building's protection.

Spine looked around at all the posters and wires hanging from the walls. Many long wires dangled from the ceiling, copper jutting out awkwardly from each thick bond. They poured out from the wall, ceiling, and one large one even poked out of the floor just beside Spine's chair. It made him feel slightly uncomfortable that there were so many ripped wires...what if they were plugged in? Would that set the building on fire?

The posters strewn randomly over the walls didn't do much to calm him either. The robots shown on each dusty sheet of laminated paper were all in erotic poses with cheesy captions that made Spine blush just by looking at them. The whole place was filled to the brim with posters like that, each one completely different and totally cringe worthy in their own ways. Besides the posters, other sheets of paper hung loosely off the walls, featuring children's drawings of the robots the franchise had given rise to. Which Spine found strange and disturbing, given how the franchise was created to satisfy the urges of adult men.

He decided not to go too deep into it.

Other than the wires or the drawings, there was a large metal desk in front of him and a wiry trash can beside it. In it, there were a few discarded, balled-up sheets of paper that Spine shrugged off, assuming they were just forgotten or useless documents. A metal fan sat atop his desk, whirring and rocking unsteadily on the dented surface of the table.

Apart from those, the most fascinating thing in the room (at least to Spine, anyway,) was an enormous cardboard box filled with empty shells of the androids Fazbender Enterprises had sold in different locations. Bright colored heads and dusty metal parts compiled together in the heap of spare pieces that were likely not to be used ever again. They were interesting to look at; a glance at what the original bots looked like, and a chance to imagine how they must have looked back in the day.

The entire building looked abandoned - it was supposed to. It was supposed to bring about emotions of discomfort and helplessness to the poor saps who happened to come through those doors. The attraction, Fazbender's Fright itself, wasn't meant to strike fear into anyone; just enough discomfort to make them unsure of their surroundings. Really all it was was just a medley of shitty props and bad lighting.

And yet, it somehow made Spine unsettled.

A sudden ring from a phone on the desk made Spine jump. He turned his head to face the desk, and his eyes fell upon and old-fashioned phone that looked as though it came straight out of the eighties. He watched it ring for a few moments before scootching his seat forward and began pressing random buttons. He pressed most of them before he actually got the phone to work. Out spouted a crackly message from the girl he was employed by.

"Hey, man! Glad you came to work today! I know this seems like a crappy setup right now, but I promise it'll be a lot more interesting soon! We found some great new relics from another location, and we're tracking down a new lead as we speak! So, uhh, I'm basically recording this just to let you in on some info about what's gonna be happening to this location over the next couple of days.

"Like, the attraction opens in, like, a week! So we gotta make sure everything is functional and won't set on fire. When the place opens, people will come in at the opposite end of the building, and work their way towards you, then past you and out the exit. Yeah...I know it's kind of short notice, considering you just started working here, but you've unofficially become part of the attraction! Yay! You'll be starring as...THE SECURITY GUARD!

"Or, SEXurity guard? Eh? No?...Okay.

"Uh, anyway...so not only will you be monitoring the people as they walk through to make sure they don't vandalize anything or...do intimate things in the corner...or vandalize things BY doing intimate things in the corner...but you'll also be a part of the show! It'll make this thing look LEGIT, fam!

"So, uh, lemme tell you what's new here. We found a set of drawings from an old location, same one where we found your desk. A little bizarre, but okay. But here's the awesome thing: we found an old FOXICA HEAD! From, like, 1985 or whatever! We think it could be authentic, but then again it could just be another shitty cosplay.

"Basically, all we have at this point is just a bunch of weird posters and flashing lights. I was kinda hoping we'd have more than we do now...at this rate, we'll need to equip you in one of those digimon costumes and make you walk around, like, jumpscaring people and shit! Dude, that'd be fucking ridiculous…

"But like I said, we're trying to find something to attract visitors, a new lead of sorts. Some girl we contacted told us there was an old room that was boarded up and is still kept covered up, but we're gonna dig through that place and see what we can find. Who knows? That location is full of old, creepy and weirdly erotic shit. I'm sure we'll get something, even if it's not a robot.

"For now, just get acquainted with our setup. Yeah, it's shitty, but I'm sure it still works. Even if it doesn't, we have a maintenance panel just to your left so you can reboot any systems that may go offline. So, to activate the cameras, just push that blue button to your right. We installed a map of the rooms and vents just in case any fucking vandals tried to sneak in through the air ducts. We also have an audio port that plays weird laughter. We dismantled an entire robot to find that shit, so be sure to use it at least once. It took our tech guy a LOT of time to do that.

"One more thing: I wasn't joking about that fire stuff. That's a legit risk. In trying to make this place feel vintage and creepy all at once, we may have overdone it...a lot. Broken wires and fire hazards are literally EVERYWHERE. So be sure not to let anything burst into flames while you're on the job. Thaaaanks!

"OH! And be sure to keep that ventilation going. Look, this place gives me the creeps, dude. And when the vents go offline, holy FUCK. I hallucinate like no one's business. So I recommend that if you're anything like me, you should avoid letting the vents go offline at ALL COSTS. Keep that air flowin'.

"Okay! Please make sure nothing breaks and nobody breaks in, and we'll be sure to give you something new tomorrow night!"

A sudden click, and the message ended.

Spine sat back, his teeth still nibbling on his fingernails. He looked around, still admiring the odd decor and trying to remember everything his employer said. Avigan, he thought her name was.

He hadn't seen her yet. All he'd heard of her was what was spoken through the phone. And this time, it seemed like she had some really important shit to say.

He kept a mental list of all the things he was supposed to do: Check the cameras, reboot the systems if they went offline, don't let the vents go haywire, and don't let anything set on fire. Sounded easy enough.

All for ten bucks an hour for a week? Sounded good to him.

Spine rested for a while, flipping through cameras and leaning back in his chair. Occasionally he took out his phone and played a few games, but he seemed to be very alert. At every little noise, he jumped and pulled open the camera. It turned out that every time it was just the systems failing, but he knew what to do and was on top of everything.

Then around four A.M. he heard a strange sound that did not come from the cameras. He looked through the monitor, and after flipping through quite a few sections of the building, he found what appeared to be a teenager standing in the middle of camera eight.

Jumping out of his seat, Spine rushed to the room so he could shoo out the intruder. No one was supposed to come in, and even if they did…

...all the doors in the building were locked…

Spine stopped running for a moment. He considered what he just saw, wondering if the person had crawled through the ventilation system. They couldn't have, though; the vents would have bumped and clanked if anybody was in there!

Suddenly a bit worried, Spine looked around at the room he stood in. Masks of older models of the robots loomed down at him, making him feel watched.

He WAS being watched.

A chill began to creep up his back as he brushed the wave of green hair from his right eye. He gulped, nervously surveying his surroundings. Something didn't feel right…

His eyes caught a bright yellow poster hanging on the wall not too far from him. He awkwardly approached it, knees weak and his mouth totally dry. He dared not make a sound, and he felt as though a person wielding a weapon were behind him, ready to strike. He kept glancing around his shoulders, but of course found nothing out of the ordinary.

He looked at the poster that appeared to be...glowing. Spine drew his hand across the paper, not wanting to damage it but not wanting to leave his curiosity piqued.

A corner of the poster fell, and a bright yellow poster hung behind it. It was glowing.

Spine felt his heartbeat speed up as he carefully took down the old sheet of paper revealing a close-up of a yellow mascot's face. It was filthy and it lacked any eyes, instead leaving two disturbingly bloody sockets underneath.

The glow ceased, and Spine grew weaker. He fell, inexplicably weary, and his eyes shut as the room dimmed.

He looked around at an unfamiliar world. There was nothing but him, the room, and a child curled up against the wall.

The child looked to be about Spine's age, maybe less. The teen blinked his eyes and took off his glasses to rub them. Where was he?

Spine cautiously approached the child, her weeping growing louder as he walked forth. His pace slowed, and he kept a three-foot distance between him and the teen in case he wanted - or needed - to run away. He put a hand forward, and began softly speaking to her.

"Hey," he whispered, "Are you okay? Who are you?"

The child turned her head. Deep gray streaks ran down her cheeks all the way to her bare feet. The girl was totally naked, her whole body covered in white and her eyes empty.

"Woah," Spine said, "Umm...hi!"

The girl sniffed. "Hi."

"Who are you?

"Who are you?"

"I'm Spine."

"Weird name."

"What's yours?"

"...I'm Isabella."

"Isabella? Hi. Can I call you Izzy?"

She shrugged.

"Are you okay?"

"No. It hurts."

"What hurts?"

"This. All this hurts."

"What's 'this'? Don't make me play the pronoun game!"

"Being dead."

Spine stepped back. "You...you're DEAD!?" he cried.

The girl nodded. She hugged her knees to her chest. "I've BEEN dead for years."

"What happened?" Spine asked, stepping back.

"Well…" Isabella said, wiping her tears, "There was this woman. I think she was my friend's mom. Then she took me to the back room with my other friends and...I watched her gouge the eye out of one of them, stab the other in the head and she…"

Isabella stopped. "I don't remember how I died."

Spine put a hand to his head. "Am **I** okay!?"

Isabella stared at him with her empty eye sockets. "Yes. You are okay. I summoned you to talk to me."

"To TALK to you?" Spine asked.

Isabella nodded. "I'm scared. I don't like being alone. I've been alone for so long."

Spine silenced. He stared intently at the girl.

"Where am I?"

Isabella frowned, and the room seemed to grow darker.

"I don't know."

The two sat together for what felt like an eternity, but in reality was probably only five minutes.

"When did you die?" Spine asked after a long silence.

"1987," was Isabella's immediate reply.

"Damn," Spine whispered, "That really WAS long ago!"

"What year is it now?" Isabella asked.

"2017," Spine answered bluntly.

"Oh my fucking god," Isabella gasped quietly, "I've been dead for thirty years."

"Yeah," Spine confirmed, "A lot of shit has changed since then."

"I bet," Isabella agreed. "Are there flying cars?"

"No, but we lowered our standards for presidential elections."

"Nothing's changed, then," Isabella stated humorously. Spine stifled a snicker.

"What else has happened?" Isabella asked, "Do you know if the investigations of my murder are still going on?"

"They're not," Spine told her, "In fact, they've turned it into a marketing campaign for the place I work part-time."

Isabella's empty sockets teared up. "Oh...I see…" The ghostly girl began to sob again, black droplets sadly dripping down her cheeks. "Nobody cares about me…"

Spine tried to look away. People crying always made him choke up. Something about emotions, especially strong ones like grief or hatred were contagious in a way not even Spine could explain. He never really was one to comfort those in need...mostly because he felt awkward trying to and never knew what to say or how to say it. But just this once he tried to be the supportive one. He got closer to Isabella and wrapped an arm around her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her, and spoke a few words that changed her stressed, teary eye sockets into calm ones.

"I care about you."

Isabella stopped crying for a moment to look at Spine. Small black tears still lingered around her sockets, but a look of calmness appeared slowly on her face.

"Thanks," Isabella thanked him, wiping her nose on her arm, "You're really nice. I expected you to run away in terror or something."

"Nah," Spine replied, "I'm the kind of guy you'd see in a movie who just stands still while the impending doom falls upon him. I get paralyzed when I'm really afraid.

"But with you…" he said quietly, his mouth searching for words his brain had already processed, "...you're different. I don't feel like there's anything to be afraid OF."

Isabella smiled. "I may be dead, but that doesn't mean I have to be scary." She leaned next to Spine, resting her head comfortably on his shoulder. Spine blushed slightly.

"You know...when I was alive, I had a fear of death," Isabella admitted, "It just felt like such a helpless case...you live, you do things, and then every single one of those things just ceases to exist anymore. You don't have a choice, and that's where my fear lied. But...I'm dead now. And being dead just feels like a sleepy release of all the horrible things that have ever happened to me. I don't HAVE to worry anymore...I don't have to eat, breathe, sleep, blink or do any of those things I had to do.

"It's so peaceful...and yet...I still feel helpless. Like there's one more thing I have to do, but I can't remember what it is. This can't be all there is after death; just a black room with nothing in it but yourself. It can't be…"

"So, wait…" Spine interrupted, "Does that mean I'M dead, too?"

"Only in my room," Isabella informed him, "Your brain is still working perfectly. You passed out and travelled to my world."

"Oh," Spine said. He didn't understand in the slightest, but pretending to comprehend death was a lot simpler than actually wrapping his feeble human brain around such a baffling and mind-boggling concept.

He sat back and started to relax with Isabella until he felt a pulling force behind him. Something felt as though it was groping him...like it was trying to grab onto his body and pull him back.

Suddenly, a giant tear appeared in the wall, and Spine felt himself tumble backwards helplessly into an abyss with a light at the end. The room had completely disappeared when Spine looked back up at it again.

He didn't feel anything, at least not until he reached the light and life returned to him.

"Oh my God!" cried a female voice, "Are you okay, Spine!?"

Spine blinked his eyes as he looked up into the blinding lights of Fazbender's Fright. Blocking the enormous ceiling fixture above him was a very attractive redhead girl. Her green eyes reflected a light that represented new life; a resurrection, if you will.

The girl had pierced ears and freckles lining her cheeks. She wore black lipstick, as if trying to look goth but ultimately failing. She was too damn cute to be goth.

"Ugh…" Spine groaned, sitting up, "What...the fuck happened? Who are you?"

"Oh! That's right, I haven't met you in person yet!" the girl said, "Hi! I'm Avigan, your employer! You fell unconscious after the ventilation stopped working."

Spine felt his forehead. He had been sweating relentlessly for the past two hours. "God," he whispered to himself, "What the...where's Izzy?..."

"Are you alright?" Avigan asked again, "Do you need anything? Like water?"

"I think I'm good," Spine lied, attempting to get up. All the lack of oxygen was making him weary. He fell over.

"Yes. I need so much water."

"I know there was an alarm just outside my office," Spine told her, "But I wasn't IN my office when it happened. I had no way of knowing the vents crashed."

Avigan tapped her chin. "Yeah, that's a problem. You said you saw a figure in the hall?"

"Yeah," Spine confirmed, taking another swig of water, "Camera eight. Dark figure. Looked about my age."

He remembered the encounter with Isabella, but chose not to speak of it until he was sure what happened wasn't some bizarre hallucination.

"That's odd," Avigan said, "Everything looks to be in order...you must've chased them off."

"Good to know," Spine stated apathetically. His head was still killing him and his mouth was dry beyond any aridness he had ever felt before. He took another long swig of water. "I'm gonna head home. Sorry for fainting on the job."

"It's okay, at least you didn't die!" Avigan told him, "You need a ride home? Did you walk here?"

"Yeah, I live just a few blocks down the street," Spine explained, "A ride might be nice. I'm still a little weary…"

"Alright! Come on!" Avigan jumped up and ran to her car with Spine trudging slowly behind.

Avigan packed the confused teen into her car and asked him where he lived. He gave her his address, and she promptly drove him to his house not too far from the attraction. The sun was just appearing over the horizon, and red light from behind some clouds shone relentlessly upon Avigan's black vehicle.

"We're here!" Avigan stated happily, putting the brakes on in front of Spine's driveway. "Thanks," Spine grunted, opening his door and stepping out. "No prob!" was Avigan's cheery reply, "Hope you get better! See you tomorrow night!"

"Yeah, sure," Spine mumbled. He wasn't sure if she heard him or not, but it didn't matter. He was too tired and weak to care.

That was so fucking weird. Why the hell did a ghost contact him just to talk to him? There had to be a more complex reason than wanting to communicate with someone. Did she want his mortal soul? Maybe not being afraid of death was a facade, and she was fooling him into giving her his living soul so she could continue to live.

But she seemed so innocent, so sad...it felt all too real, and yet had to be a dream. There was no way he actually saw a ghost.

Then again, who was that figure in the hall?

 **Hey, everyone! I'm SO sorry for not uploading last week, life and other shit got in the way, but I'm back! :D And I've got even more Extra Sexurity that I'm planning on uploading every Saturday! I'm following a schedule this time, NO EXCEPTIONS! I hope you all enjoyed reading, and I'm always open for criticisms or requests! Feel free to private message me about anything, I'm also open for conversations if you have anything you want to say to me! Thank you so much for reading, and I hope to see you guys back here next week!**


	3. Chapter 2: Brooke

Spine found himself doodling in class, something he often did but not very consciously. This time, he was fully aware that what he was drawing was a figure resembling Isabella from the night before. Her empty eyes stared right ahead at Spine, helpless and afraid. Her gray body seemed to quake with anxiety and the streaks of gray fell from her eyes to the floor, puddling into a sloppy mess of tears. The image was almost disturbing, and it was made even worse by the fact Spine knew full well what he was drawing. His brown eyes focused intensely on the figure, making every detail as accurate as possible, disrupted only by his teacher tapping on his desk and slipping him out of his deep trance.

"Do you have your homework?"

"Uh…" Spine stammered, reality sliding back into place, "Y-yeah, teach. It's, uhh...in my binder. Hold up."

Spine slipped out the sheet of paper scribbled in answers that may or may not have been correct. The teacher observed the paper's existence, and jotted a check onto her clipboard.

"Thank you," she said without emotion.

Spine went back to his drawing, now working on Isabella's hair.

Wait...did she HAVE hair?

Spine tried to think about what he saw last night, racking his brain for even the slightest hint he remembered what she looked like. It wasn't that long ago...he SHOULD have remembered. It wasn't like she was bald...or was she?

"I need to see her again," Spine thought to himself. "Thank god I have another shift tonight."

Spine finished his homework in a flash, quickly studied for a quiz he had next Tuesday, and took a three-hour nap. The teen secretly worked at Fazbender's Fright, knowing that his parents wanted him to get a job but didn't want him working there. No reason stated, they just didn't like the idea of him working there. Spine thought nothing of it, but as a curious seventeen year-old, of course he went ahead and did it anyway. All he mentioned to them was that his job required him to stay up all night, and they allowed him to continue without question.

Around 7:00, he packed his stomach with a good meal his mother prepared, and fell back asleep in his room. 11:30 rolled around, and he crept out of bed, threw on his work clothes, and readied himself for another shift at Fazbender's Fright.

Spine shot out of his house and sped downtown to the place where the attraction sat. The green lights emanating from the building gave off an unsettling vibe, but nonetheless gave off the effect it intended to have. Spine drew in a long breath, and walked around the building to reach the security entrance.

The teen stepped foot into the abandoned-looking attraction, his shoe hitting the tiled floor and immediately sending a clop ringing through the empty walls within the building. It lingered for a few seconds before the echo quieted down to a mere click. Spine let himself in, and went straight to his office.

Spine jumped into his seat and tried to relax, but the nagging thought that he still needed to see Isabella wouldn't calm down. How would he see her again? Did he need to turn off the ventilation again? Would she conjure him? Would he see her in the building?

A sharp ring shot out of the phone on the table, interrupting Spine's train of thought. Now thoroughly off track, he tried to figure out which button played the message again. It had completely slipped his mind how he had previously done it. He tried every button before he finally got the message to play. A crackly voice of his attractive mentor came spurting out of the ancient device.

"Hey, Spine! Hey, I've got some AWESOME news for you, man! We were looking through the old building last night, and we found some VINTAGE AUDIO CASSETTES! Dude, these are, like, prehistoric! I think they were supposed to be, like, training tapes for other employees? So, I got to thinking: what if we played these, like, over the speakers as people walked through the attraction? Lemme know what you think, 'cause I feel like that'd be LEGIT, fam!

"But that's not all. And you are NOT gonna believe this!...We FOUND one! A REAL one! We actually found a lead for our attraction: an old Spring Bunnie suit from the original location! How fucking cool is THAT!? So, uh, you can forget attending on the weekends in a furry suit or something! We won't need that anymore! We're all set for our show!

"Huh? What?...Oh, oopsie! Uh, I've gotta go, fam! Hold up, I've got an old training tape right here! I'll let you listen to it! Lemme know if we should let this play in the attraction!

"Oh! And, uh...just between you and me...there's something up with that...thing. It's like she's alive or something. I don't like her...but, hey. She helps us get paid! So I'm not gonna complain. Problem is, YOU have to watch her and make sure she's not damaged in any way. One of our technicians quit unexpectedly after he repaired her...he looked traumatized...I hope nothing happens to you…

"Wh-whatever. Just get through tonight, I know you can do it! For now, just listen to this audio tape and gimme your feedback after your shift."

The message stopped playing, and a new one started. This time, it sounded like an older woman, about his mother's age. She spoke with a serious tone, completely devoid of enthusiasm unlike Avigan's bubbly and energetic speech patterns. Instead, all he got was a series of instructions on how to handle certain machinery.

"Hello? Hello? Welcome to your new career as a performer slash entertainer for the Fazbar. The following tapes will inform you on how to enter slash exit the springlock suits that will be provided to you via your manager. Currently, we are in custody of two specially designed suits that our employees are capable of wearing during performances. Please pay close attention as accidents, injuries, death, or irrevocable and grotesque maiming can occur.

"First of all is how to operate the suits once they have been switched to their animatronic setting. For ease of operation, the suits are set to turn and walk towards certain sounds that we have equipped into a few of our systems throughout the building. This is an easy and hands-free approach to ensure that our machines stay right where we want them to for maximum crowd-pleasing value. To return the animatronic to suit mode, insert and turn firmly the hand crank provided to you by the manufacturer. Turning the crank will release and compress the parts within the costume providing room to climb inside. The walls of the suit have also been made for our dancers' bodies to be obviously displayed, in turn hopefully attracting more customers.

"We will cover this and more in tomorrow's session. Stay sexy and remember to smile; you are the new face of Fazbender Enterprises."

A final click, and both messages ended.

"Oookay?" Spine said quietly to himself. What the fuck? Who records this shit without laughing? That was the most absurd and awkward set of instructions he'd ever HEARD. It made sense to play it over the speakers, though; it certainly kept the "unsettling and discomforting" vibe.

Spine tried to disregard it and decided to go about his business watching the building. He flipped the camera out and began switching through different cameras, not expecting to find anything of interest.

Although he was curious; where was that thing Avigan was talking about? What did she look like? Was she like that springlock suit that was mentioned in the message he was told to review?

Spine casually kept looking at each camera, expecting to find the robot propped up against the wall or something like that. But he almost jumped back in surprise when he found it at the opposite side of the attraction, grinning eerily into the camera. Spine could barely look at her; her disgusting yellow fur patched with what looked like dry oil and her eyes sunken and glossy. Her body looked decayed with wires popping out of so many holes it was mind-boggling. Half of her entire left ear was gone, leaving only a few scraps of fuzzy fabric and wiry framework in its place. Her teeth were either broken, missing or filled with holes. Her clothes (or what little she had) were clean, but it was distracting considering she was horrifically ugly.

Spine decided to stop looking at her and switch cameras. He didn't find anything, of course, and still wanted to see Isabella again. He wondered how he was going to do that...would she let him know she wanted him? Hopefully.

He heard a clop echo throughout the hallways. Spine jumped. His eyes grew wide as he realized that the only thing that could clop were footsteps.

He glanced at his watch. Not even 12:30.

"Nobody's supposed to be here yet!" Spine whispered. He listened closely, and heard even more footsteps clumsily stepping through the corridors.

Spine looked back at the cameras and went back to look at the Spring Bunnie suit. His heart stopped and his stomach sank all the way into his shoes.

The suit was gone.

Panicking, the teen frantically shot through multiple cameras, not finding the suit in any one except the ninth one. He watched in horror as the suit was walking slowly, its arms partly extended and its head down. It retched and groaned and creaked as its broken body progressed through the flashing hallway. Spine listened to its voice as it mumbled and its groans bounced off the walls and traversed all the way to Spine's office.

He didn't know what to do. He thought that maybe what he was seeing was a hallucination and he wasn't actually seeing that horrific trash pile walking around and moaning like a zombie. He shut his eyes, ready for his soul to leave his body so he could meet Isabella again.

"Okay, Izzy!" he said to himself, "Don't worry! I'm coming!"

He waited five minutes. Nothing happened.

"Oh, no," he said. He flipped open the maintenance panel. Every system was online.

"Ohhh shit," he whispered nervously.

Now in a full-on panic, he frantically began smashing buttons everywhere so he could detract the monster from reaching him. He hit the audio button on his camera system, and the robot immediately stopped its progress. It picked its head up, revealing two empty eyes with pin pricked irises, then turned around and headed towards another camera.

"That's right," Spine said, still panicked, "They'll turn and walk away when they hear sound! I got it!"

Once the audio track rewound itself, he played it again, deterring the ugly abomination. "I've got your number now!" he said smugly, "You won't be getting to ME tonight!"

Willow's pace was slow and painful. Of course her suit had been fixed, but on the way back a plate had snapped out of place and now she was back to limping. Her joints ached and her head bobbed as her legs creaked and groaned. Her false smile plastered on her face bounced with every step, making the costume look as though it was laughing at Willow's failure to walk.

She thought about giving up...but how? She clearly couldn't die...her suit just acted as a barrier for her soul to survive in. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. She was helpless and trapped, and nothing could save her now.

Giving up wasn't an option because suicide wasn't an option. She had to keep going...but why? She was tired and weak and just wanted to die. Existing was just too painful to continue surviving.

Suddenly, she heard a child's voice from a room away: "Hello?"

"...Ivy?" Willow groaned. Her vocal cords were ripped and broken, resulting in more of a grumble than speech. But she could still be understood.

The broken woman turned and headed towards the next room. Her costume continued to silently giggle at her torment. She tried to move faster, knowing her daughter was just a room away. All hope wasn't lost...at least, not completely yet.

When she got to the next room, she awaited a form of her daughter of any kind...ghost, physical, mental...but everything was blank. The room had so much in it, but not what Willow was looking for, and thus it just became nothing more than a dead end and an empty one at that.

Willow shook in place and her metal skeleton rattled. Her good ear bobbed along with the jaw piece, still laughing hysterically at Willow's expense.

She let a bloody tear trickle from her right eye, the only good one at this point, and fell to the ground. This time, all her pieces stayed intact, but she didn't care. She put her hands to the ground, feeling it through the thin lining of her costume. Her knees stayed firmly planted on the tiled floor along with her bloody hands that never got washed. She felt a strong tug on her heart, a prick of sadness in her mind...everything she ever loved was gone and she was confined to nothing more than a set of bars and wires concealed within a fucking rabbit.

She finally lost it, and threw back her torso in a tortured scream. She felt her vocal cords sting at the burning sensation, but it was literally all she could do at this point. All her anger and emotional torment seeped into the shriek, ripping through the corridors and piercing even her own ears. Her eyes turned bloodshot, and red tears dropped relentlessly from her right eye. She dropped to the ground again and began crying, knowing everything after this was going to be absolute Hell for her and there was nothing she could do about it. She had failed to do everything she wanted to do, and another child's laugh echoed through the halls to remind her of her many faults. Her eyes shot open, and she got up to look at the camera.

"SHUT UP!" She screamed. She stared angrily at the camera for a moment before winding her fist back and slamming it hard into the mechanism. The camera shattered on impact, and it drooped limply from the wall by just a few wires. Now totally crushed, there was no way it could possibly work.

"You bastard," Willow snarled, looking at the camera. She stormed off towards the office, her joints still popping and squeaking.

Spine gasped in horror as the camera system shut down. He hurriedly wheeled himself over to the maintenance panel to fix it. He slapped the reboot button, and listened to the panel beep as it rewired the system to allow a view for Spine to observe. After it had finished rebooting, though, the error message remained.

"WHAT!?" Spine cried, "That's IMPOSSIBLE!" He pressed reboot again and again, hoping for a different outcome, but of course the system remained offline.

He flipped open the camera panel again, and slammed his fist on it, hoping to power it on, get some reception...ANYTHING. But one busted camera offset the whole system. He spent the next ten minutes panicking and trying to fix the broken systems, but approaching footsteps made him even more anxious and only screwed up the cameras more.

Spine screamed in a panic and got up. He prepared to run right out of the building, but was stopped quickly by a yellow hand grabbing his shoulder forcefully. Spine's heart stopped as he was turned to face his monster. The eerie smile and glossy eyes of the walking animatronic stared right at him, eye to eye contact completely unavoidable. Spine didn't blink, breathe, or even shake. Every bodily function had ceased entirely.

The animatronic winded her fist back and plowed it right into Spine's face.

That was all he remembered before he blacked out.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

Spine blinked. He was in a dark room again. He slowly sat up, disoriented.

"Ugh…" Spine groaned, "Izzy? Is that you?"

"Izzy?" the girl asked, "No, Izzy is my friend. I'm Brooke."

"Brooke!?" Spine said, panicked, "No! No, I need to see Isabella!" He got up, and looked around. "FUCK!"

"Please watch your profanity!" the girl said, "I don't like that!"

"I'm sorry," Spine sighed, "I-I'm just really...I don't...WHERE IS SHE!?"

"I saw your unconscious body," the girl, apparently named Brooke, informed him, "and I wanted you to be okay. So you're here while you recover."

Spine ran around, looking for an opening in any of the walls. He pounded each one, stinging his fist each time. His strength was minimal, and he barely left a dent anywhere. "DAMMIT!" he screamed. He covered his mouth. "I'm so sorry!"

"It's okay," Brooke said, "I'm sorry for making you come here. I'll let you go if you wa-"

"No!" Spine shouted, "No. I'm fine. I'll just...wait here with you." He sat down and patted the floor next to him. "Come sit."

"Okay," Brooke complied. She hesitantly sat down next to Spine, clutching her knees close to her chest and squeezing her legs tight.

Spine glanced Brooke's way, then turned. _She has hair._

"Izzy told me you're dead," Spine muttered flatly.

"I am," Brooke mumbled. She was so quiet, her voice was almost mute.

"I'm sorry," Spine sighed. Brooke shrugged.

"It's so creepy…" Brooke whispered, "I'm always cold. I have to talk to myself all the time. I'm claustrophobic, and my eye hurts. Everything is bad."

Spine drew in a sharp breath. "It may seem bad at first," Spine said, "But keep in mind things can improve."

"No, they won't…" Brooke sighed, black tears beginning to fall from her eyes, "I've been dead for who knows how long. Nothing has improved."

She sighed and rested her head in between her knees.

Spine listened to her quietly weep as he helplessly sat against a black wall, contemplating his and her very existence.

"I'm Spine, by the way," Spine told her.

Brooke said nothing. He wondered if she heard him.

Dammit, Spine scolded himself, Not the right time! Idiot…

"Look," Spine said, lightly putting his hand on her shoulder, "What do you want more than anything right now?"

Brooke picked up her head for a moment and wiped her nose. "To go to heaven," she sniffed, "But that's not gonna happen…" She rested her head on her legs and wept again.

Spine didn't know what to do. He didn't have the authority to bring people to heaven or reincarnate them or whatever. How the fuck was he supposed to do that!? He didn't even know where he was NOW!

Brooke picked up her head again. "Was everything I believed in a lie?"

Spine raised an eyebrow and pointed his confused expression her way.

"Ever since I was born, I was told that when we die, we go to heaven or Hell. No middle ground," Brooke explained, "But then...what do you call this? This...black...room? This restrictive cage? This prison without any windows or doors or...ANYTHING!? Is this all there is after life? Just a BOX?"

Spine shrugged. "Maybe. I'm atheist," he informed her.

Small tears formed around her eye sockets. "So it WAS a lie," she whispered. She looked around at the empty wall in a daze.

"My religion...my LIFE...was a lie all along…" she recapped. The words felt like acid as they passed her lips.

Spine didn't know what to say. Without even trying, he had just ripped a poor girl's entire life to pieces. Everything that held it together just didn't exist anymore.

"I…" Spine whispered, "I'm sorry...I didn't…"

"You didn't do anything," Brooke stopped him, "I asked."

"Maybe," Spine shrugged, "But it was rude of me to just...pretend it didn't matter."

"Nothing does anymore," Brooke said, her gaze directed at an empty wall across from her.

Spine sat back. He let out a heavy sigh as he felt his heart crack in two.

"Well…" Spine said, "As long as I'm here...why did you conjure me?"

Brooke sniffed. "I was cold and lonely," she sighed.

"I can fix both of those." Spine scooted over to Brooke and wrapped his arms around her. He felt her icy body cling to his, and the sudden rush of cold made his heart skip a beat. Brooke gasped as he held her, not expecting that sort of affectionate gesture from someone who'd just dropped an F-bomb. It felt soothing, though...a sensation she had been deprived of for so long. She wrapped her arms around him, too. She felt his heartbeat slow down as both of them relaxed. Brooke's eyes shut and she allowed her arms to slowly encompass Spine's torso as well. The feeling was odd, but very enjoyable. For the first time in three decades, Brooke finally remembered what it felt like to hug somebody.

"Know that you're not alone," Spine whispered to her, holding her delicately, "I'm here. I WILL be here for you."

Brooke sniffled as tears formed around her eye sockets once again. "Thank you," she sobbed, "So much…"

The two knelt there, hugging in the middle of the dark wall, at once avoiding every negative thought or impulse they had ever encountered. For the time being, everything was perfect.

Then, like a dream, it abruptly ended, and Spine woke up.

He sat up, rubbing his forehead. He was immediately slammed back to the ground by the monster he had caught on camera before.

"So…" the beast groaned, "You're awake. I was going to slaughter you, but...I changed my mind."

Spine blinked. "Who...what ARE you?" he asked, still in a daze.

"I," the robotic abomination stated emphatically, as if every word was important and needed to stick in your mind like gum sticks on the seat of your pants (trust me, I know), "am Clickbait."

"You're...Clickbait?" Spine repeated. He rubbed his temples with his index finger and thumb. "Of all the names you could POSSIBLY have chosen, and you decide on CLICKBAIT!?"

"My trappers baited me into clicking the mechanisms of this robot shut," Clickbait explained, "So I'm Clickbait."

"That's so STUPID!" Spine aggressively spouted, "You could have gone with Killer Rabbit! Or Thugs Bunny! Or even fucking SPRINGTRAP! Come on, it's not hard!"

Clickbait's hand shot to his throat and held him to the ground. "I am Clickbait," she snarled, "And if you so defy me again I will end your rotten little life. You lay a finger on me against my will or insult me again, and I will rip your chest open, destroy your ribs and nibble on your organs while you writhe in pain, AWAKE. Understood?"

"Okay, okay!" Spine cried, his face pink with lack of oxygen, "I'll do whatever you say! Just, PLEASE GET YOUR HAND OFF MY THROAT!"

Clickbait obeyed, and Spine gasped for a solid six seconds. He fell forward, coughing and clearing his windpipe. "Jesus Christ," he managed, "You're pretty fuckin' tough."

"Thank you," Clickbait said stiffly. She looked away. "What is this place?"

Spine coughed again, his hand still running over his Adam's apple and rubbing his sore neck. "It's called 'Fazbender's Fright'. It's a horror attraction."

Clickbait blinked. A squashing sound emanated from her bloody eyelids. "Oh, right," she said, remembering, "That guy was telling me I would be a part of their show. Now I see what he was talking about." She sighed.

Spine cleared his throat again. "Yeah," he sputtered, "Why? Is that a problem?"

"A bit," Clickbait sighed again, "My children died around the time Fazbender Enterprises shut down."

One of Spine's eyebrows rose. "Wait," he said, "Hold on. You had KIDS!? Or, more specifically, you were ALIVE!?"

"This blood didn't come from a victim, kiddo," Clickbait uttered aggressively, "I died in this prison. I was chased into it."

"As for the kids, yes, I DID have some. Three in total." Her cheeks twisted into a barely noticeable smile. "Best moments of my life."

Spine wolf whistled. "Oh, grow up," Clickbait snarled, "I meant having the kids. Asshole." She turned her head back to sneer at him.

"Sorry," Spine apologized, not sorry at all, "It's just...I can't imagine you as a person. And if I'm being one hundred percent honest, you've got a real rockin' bod. Just saying."

Clickbait undid a lock on the side of her head and ripped the top piece open. She pried the jaw downward, revealing an ugly, bloody mass of a face with glossy eyeballs and metal poking into it in seemingly painful and/or awkward places. Half of her teeth were completely missing and the other half was either slanted or cracked to fit the mechanical death trap. She lacked a nose, leaving two meaty holes just between her lifeless eyes. Spine jumped back, letting out a less-than-manly shriek.

Clickbait shut the head closed. "Yeah. Thought so," she snapped. She turned around, facing away from Spine.

Spine was officially scarred now. "Uhh...so, why did you spare me again?"

Clickbait sighed. She sure was filled with a lot of air for a dead woman. "I saw your helpless expression...it reminded me of my children...when I saw their bodies." She sniffed. "I didn't want to end your life too soon. There must have been a woman like me who cares about you. And I just can't put her through that Hell, that...INSANITY...that GRIEF...that I went through. I'm not heartless."

Spine's eyes were wide. "You...you had to see your own kids...dead!? That's horrible!"

"Not just dead," Clickbait stated. She turned around momentarily to speak one word that sent a chill surging through Spine's body: "Murdered."

Spine gasped. "No fucking way," he said quietly. He got up and moved himself to where Clickbait knelt. "So...did you come back to avenge them, or…?"

Clickbait inhaled sharply. "I don't know," she said honestly, "I just hope they're okay, wherever they are."

Spine looked down. Eye contact with this creature was absurdly hard.

"Yeah...my mom would be pretty sad if I died at work," Spine said, "She'd be left crying for about a year. Maybe two."

Clickbait looked at Spine. Her neck creaked as it shifted. "I was just about the same. You never quite get over your children's death. Especially if it was all three at once." She remained silent for a few moments searching for words. "I don't know, but I think I must have come back for a purpose. That...trying to find my children is my goal...and I have to do it or else I'm going to remain this monster for eternity."

Spine scratched his nose. "Uh...do you know any girls named "Isabella" or "Brooke"?"

Clickbait's eyes shot open. "Yes!" she answered quickly, "They were two of my eldest daughter's friends!"

"I saw them in some visions I had after I passed out," Spine explained, "I saw Izzy yesterday and Brooke today."

"Oh my God!" Clickbait laughed, "No way! Do you think that my daughter might be here?"

"I mean, probably," Spine guessed, shrugging, "If her friends are here, then why not?"

Clickbait put her hands to her mouth in a giddy laugh. "I might actually see my children again!...They're here! They're really HERE!"

"They could be," Spine said, "I never clarified they were."

"But her friends are here!" Clickbait argued, "They HAVE to be close! I just KNOW it!"

Spine smiled. He couldn't bear to break her heart. "Yeah," he said, "They probably are."

"How are we gonna find them, though?" he asked. Clickbait stopped. "Maybe we have to knock you out again?" Spine put his hands to his head. "Oh, HELL no!" he shouted, "I am NOT falling unconscious AGAIN! I think my brain's been through enough trauma! And what if none of them conjure my broken soul again? Does that mean I was just konked out for NOTHING!?"

Clickbait put a finger to her mouth. "I'll think of something," she said, her smile still plastered on her face. She was still horrific to look at, no doubt, but she had good intentions.

"I mean, I fainted because of a lack of oxygen once," Spine recalled, "But I don't know if that'll get one of the spirits to conjure me."

"What do you usually do when they conjure you?" Clickbait asked, "Just curious."

"Well, both of them were lonely but only Brooke was cold. I sat and talked with both of them, and I hugged Brooke, trying to warm her up, you know?"

"That's...very sweet of you," Clickbait admitted, "I didn't know you were a softy!"

"Underneath my cold, dead exterior lies a golden core," Spine said confidently.

"You're not so bad," Clickbait said, her smile still pronounced unwillingly. "Same with you," Spine replied, "I don't think I've ever become...friends with someone that quickly!"

Clickbait glanced at him. "You think we're friends?" she asked, "We're merely acquaintances. I think 'friends' comes later."

"Right, sure," Spine shrugged, blushing, "Whatever you say."

Clickbait and Spine rested in silence for quite a while, Spine getting up to occasionally reboot systems that went offline. They seldom spoke, Spine interrupting with questions of the past that Clickbait responded to with vague answers.

"Hang on," Spine said, getting up again, "I think the vents are offline again. I'll be right back." "Sure," Clickbait replied, emotionless.

Spine made his way to his office, thinking about poor Clickbait and the Hell she had been through. He wanted to get back to Clickbait; she was ugly and violent, but if you got to know her she could become a teddy bear.

The green-haired teen walked at a brisk pace, eventually reaching the room where he pulled out the maintenance panel and rebooted the ventilation systems. He waited until they were repaired and once they were, he put the device away and went to rejoin Clickbait near the exit where he had originally found her.

On the way, he began hearing strange sounds...like...whispering. He stopped to listen, assuming it was the vents, but...vents don't whisper. He walked slowly, making sure he wasn't producing the sound, then sped up a bit. Something was definitely wrong.

Then, a full-on voice whispered to him: "You know she is using you."

Spine gasped and backed against the wall. His green bangs bounced above his eye, and his glasses jumped. He became slightly paralyzed with fear, waiting anxiously for something to jump out at him.

"I know you mean no harm," the voice continued, "Which is why I am trying to protect you."

"H-hello?" Spine said. His voice was almost as wobbly as his knees, bending together to keep him from falling. "Who's there?"

"It's just me, Marilyn," the voice whispered, "Mary for short. I have been trapped here, as well as Willow, for over thirty years."

"Who's Willow!?" Spine asked, "Wh-Where are you!?"

"Willow was my boss, when I worked for her," Marilyn explained, "But now **I** pull the strings in THIS relationship."

"What are you talking about?" Spine asked. His arms were like noodles, limply drooping from both sleeves and not really serving any other purpose.

"Willow is the girl in the suit," Marilyn stated impatiently, "And she is NOT who you think she is. She is cold-blooded and thinks of no one but herself."

Spine gulped. He decided not to ask any further questions.

"You look frightened," Marilyn taunted, "Yet you shouldn't be. I intend no harm on your behalf."

Spine blew out a long breath of air. He had neglected to breathe for the last thirty seconds; he was too frightened to. "So...why are you here?"

"Because," Marilyn whispered, "I intend MUCH harm on WILLOW'S behalf."

"WHAT!? Why!?" Spine asked, "She lost her children! Hasn't she suffered enough!?"

"No," Marilyn answered briefly.

Spine refused to say more. He was terrified and his mind was jumbled. All the questions he should have asked were left to rot in the recesses of his mind.

"Kindly do not interfere with my work," Marilyn whispered. Spine felt a freezing hand stroke his cheek, and he jumped back in shock. A short cackle echoed through the empty corridor as Spine was left standing alone and afraid against the wall of posters and other miscellaneous props. A bright green light from across the hall within a fox head briefly illuminated his figure then burned out.

"Oh shit," said Spine.

He heard a splitting scream shred the walls, and he went running. He found Clickbait sobbing in the corner.

Spine left at the time he was supposed to: six in the morning. He had instructed Clickbait to stand in the position she had started out in before anybody else came in and saw that she had moved. She complied, and stood just as she had previously.

The teen strode home, the thought still prodding him. Somebody worked for Clickbait? As in, she used to be the boss of somebody? Wow.

But why did Mary want revenge? What the hell could she have POSSIBLY done to deserve such torment? Visions of her children in the hope that she would one day be reunited with them? Yikes…

There had to be some way to help Clickbait...some way to keep her from getting harmed, at least! He couldn't just stand aside and let somebody get what they didn't deserve. Not this time. He had to complete her task; her quest that would lead to her moving on to the afterlife. That is, if there even WAS one.

"There's only one thing left to do," Spine murmured to himself as he walked back home, "I gotta die again tomorrow."

 **Aaaand, that's a wrap! Thanks for reading! New chapter will be uploaded next Saturday! By the way, I am VERY bad at relationships, so if you think something's a bit awry in the story, that's just my terrible mind at work. Also, feel free to message me about anything at all! I'm always open for conversations or requests, and it's extremely likely I'll respond! Anyway, thanks again and I hope you enjoyed!**


	4. Chapter 3: Ned

Spine sat up, a heavy pulsing going through the veins in his forehead. He looked around, occasionally blinking to clear up any fogginess. His vision was a bit blurry; his glasses must have fallen off. Spine felt the floor until he reached the plastic frames he wore to improve his sight. He slid them carefully onto his nose, and noticed one lense was cracked. "Shit," he muttered to himself, "Dammit. How am I gonna explain this to my mom?"

That would have to wait till later. For now, he still had no idea where he was. He appeared to be in a closet of sorts, dark but certainly not empty. He struggled onto his feet, his legs wobbling unsteadily in place. He felt the walls around him, searching for a door. Through the walls, he could hear a faint song being sung by a melodious voice with beautiful cadence. His hands felt the chipped paint on three sides before they finally reached a knob and a door frame. He balled a fist around the knob, turned it and slid the door open.

Spine emerged into an empty auditorium, chairs everywhere and nobody in them. In front of the many rows of chairs was a machine that resembled an enormous yellow bear. Beside it was a gorgeous golden rabbit that reminded Spine of Clickbait.

Wait...that WAS Clickbait.

Spine approached the stage, observing his surroundings as he passed by. The walls were all brown and blank, not a single scrap of paper or even a poster visible. The teen's expression turned slowly into a worried one as the walls became more illuminated with each step he took. His gaze shifted towards the robots singing onstage, their joints moving swiftly to the beat. The song sounded very old; like something out of the late seventies. The robots had seductive expressions, each one seeming to beckon Spine to them, get him to do something quite foolish he knew he would probably regret. His eyes kept following the rabbit, how beautiful she must have been. She had bright green eyes, delicate yellow fur, tight clothes that showed off way too much of her body and thick thighs that would have given Spine an erection if he weren't so terrified.

Spine finally came close enough to the stage to look up at the robots. The stage wasn't that high; it was simply a platform with stairs that reached up to Spine's knees. At his eye level were the mechanical beauty's kneecaps. Looking up, he caught an almost photo-worthy shot of the rabbit's breasts. The tips of her nipples poked out lewdly from the brim of her tank top. Spine jumped as she lowered herself down to Spine's height and winked directly at him before stepping back onto the stage, hand placed firmly on her hip.

Discomfort plagued the green-haired teen, and the crack on his right lense bothered him more than it should. He just wanted to sit down; fortunately, there was plenty of room to do that. He found a seat to the left side of the auditorium, just a row away from the stage, and plopped himself into it. He released a satisfactory sigh as his body rested comfortably on the velvet cushion. He closed his eyes briefly, inhaling the odd scent of the place. It didn't smell like anything at all. Still, he relaxed and tried to keep his mind off of the bizarre scenario he found himself in.

"Hey! Kid!"

Spine gasped and whipped his head around, searching for the source of the call. "Down here!" Spine's eyes darted below the seat next to his, and he was met with a shivering ghost child, much like the embodiments of Brooke or Isabella. "Who are YOU!?" Spine whispered, meeting the volume of which the little ghost chose to vocalize with. "My name is Ned," the little ghost responded, "Please! Help me!"

Spine got down from his chair and knelt to look at the boy. "What do you need?" Spine asked. "I'm trapped!" the boy replied. Spine went to try to lift the chair up and help the ghost escape, but his cries attempted to keep him from doing so.

"No, no, no!" Ned cried, trying hard to keep his voice down, "I meant HERE! In this auditorium!"

"That's impossible," Spine said, putting the chair down, "How did **I** get in here, then?"

"I conjured you," Ned whispered, "I need you to free me!"

"Oh, fuck, not again," Spine groaned, rubbing his face, "Okay, what do you need me to do? How are you trapped?"

The boy blinked his empty eye sockets and sighed. "Well, if you've been conjured before, you know that I'm dead." Spine shrugged. "Yeah, THAT much was obvious."

"Okay," Ned whispered, "Well, when I died, I was having a nightmare that my sister and her friends wanted to kill me, so they put my head into the mouth of the yellow bear. Then, just as the jaws bit down on me, I felt a knife go through my head, and it was all over. I died.

"When I woke up again, I was still having the nightmare; my sister and her friends come in, they shove me into the bear's mouth, and I die. Then it repeated itself again; I woke up, my sister and her friends come in, they put me in the bear's mouth, I die. I wake up, my sister and her friends come in, they put me in the bear's mouth, I die. It's been happening like this for thirty years, and every time it gets more painful than the last time!

"I need you to help me!" the ghost cried, "I need someone to help end the torture! I'm so sick of dying! I don't wanna die anymore! Please help me!"

Spine's lip quivered. Ned's eye sockets became wet with bloody tears. He put his hands to his face and wiped his eyes, only worsening his sadness when he looked at his fingers and realized they were coated in blood.

"I can help you," Spine agreed, "What do you need me to do?"

Ned sniffed and looked up. "Really?" he asked in disbelief, "Thank you! Thank you so much!"

"Yeah, but what do we have to do?" Spine asked. "Well, I think we have to stop my sister and her friends from getting to me," Ned answered, wiping his nose, "That, or we have to demolish the robots before the bear can bite me."

"Okay," Spine said, "Let's try stopping your sister and her friends from getting to you first." "Okay," Ned agreed. He stood beside Spine, making sure he was protected.

The two boys waited for quite some time before anything happened. A whole five minutes passed, and neither Spine nor Ned had seen anything.

"When does something happen?" Spine asked.

"In seventeen minutes," Ned answered, "Right now we only have two minutes and thirty-one seconds left."

Sure enough, within two minutes and thirty-one seconds, the door to the closet burst open and four figures wearing masks resembling other animals walked out. Every figure was pitch black and had a menacing red glow around their outlines. Their arms were outstretched, as if reaching for something.

They WERE reaching for something.

Their masks were all cracked or disfigured in some way. One mask appeared to be melted, one had cracks all over the eyes and mouth, another was simply framework with a few patches of fabric on it, and another seemed to be burned badly.

The figures approached with alarming speed, although they appeared to be shambling rather than running. The whole room was silent besides the song the robots sung, which had switched to a melancholy tune played on a broken music box. Blood began to drip from the ceiling, and the lights on the stage were now replaced by smoldering flames. Spine's heartbeat sped up and his mind raced furiously as his lungs spasmed with breaths.

"Help me!" Ned cried over the chaos. It snapped Spine's mind into place, and he watched in horror as the figures seemed to walk past him. Ned turned away in fear, and he ran towards the stage. Each figure seemed completely disinterested in Spine, which only helped him toughen up enough to wallop them all. He sprung forth, trying to grab one of them, and swiftly threw them to the floor. With a thud, the figure slammed to the ground, and its slender hands gripped onto Spine's legs. He gave a short cry as his whole body was forced to the floor, and his head was pointed right at Ned as his cranium was being fitted into the robotic bear's jaw. It no longer resembled a beautiful girl; its expression was delighted, almost enthralled to be munching on a little boy's skull. Its whole body had morphed to become an ugly monster with sharp teeth and claws, with torn clothes and blood red eyes. It seemed to look directly at Spine with an eerily smug expression as its sharp fangs sunk deep into Ned's flesh.

"NOOOO!" Spine screamed with all the strength he had left. And then everything went black again.

Spine woke up in the closet, in the exact same position he found himself in seventeen minutes ago. He found his glasses once again, still cracked. He blew out a long, exasperated breath of air and put his glasses back on. "It's fucking Groundhog Day all over again," Spine groaned as he found the door and exited the closet again.

The green-haired boy ran out of the closet, searching for Ned. "Ned!" Spine called, "Ned! Where are you?" A hand popped out from a chair in the front and Spine ran to meet up with him.

Spine greeted him with a sigh. "Okay, so THAT didn't work," he said, "Let's try destroying the robots. Why haven't you done these things yet?"

"Because this is MY nightmare," Ned explained, "I can't obstruct anything that kills me. Whenever I come back, I contemplate my next move, but my subconscious is preventing me from carrying out those actions!"

"So, basically, I'm the only one who can edit your nightmares?" Spine paraphrased. "Exactly!" Ned confirmed, "Can you find anything to demolish them with? Maybe something in the closet?"

"Good idea," Spine replied. He and Ned ran back to the supply closet, where Spine found a bunch of spare parts and a couple tools. Ned dug through a large assortment of parts that looked like they didn't belong to any of the robots onstage. There were quite a couple empty shells of other equally sexy animatronics, a few arms and legs and a vibrator, but nothing else.

Then, both of their eyes fell upon a hammer that hung from a rusty nail on the wall.

"Perfect!" Spine yelled. He snatched the hammer off of the wall and sped out of the closet. Ned ran after him, waiting excitedly to see what he was going to do. Once the duo reached the stage, Spine jumped up onto the platform and ran up to the robotic bear first. He launched the hammer straight at her face, immediately smashing a large portion of the bear's upper jaw. The mechanical mammal fell backwards, and Spine jumped on it, relentlessly bashing in its body, grunting with each strike. Crushed metal, torn fabric, nuts, bolts, screws and ripped wires shot out of the beast as Spine tore it to bits. Once he was convinced no part of the robot could ever be pieced together, he stood up and cheered in victory, only for the golden rabbit to grab him from behind. He cried out in horror, and his glasses fell off. He blinked and screamed, kicking his legs frantically to try and free himself from the evil rabbit. His back was pressed uncomfortably against her breasts and her arms squeezed his torso tightly. Spine wailed again, this time more struggled than before. His eyes pointed to Ned, who could do nothing more than watch in horror as his only hope of surviving was slowly being crushed to death.

Spine shrieked again, and his scream was cut off as a mouthful of sharp teeth encompassed his head.

A troubled groan escaped Spine's lips as he awoke within the closet for the third time. "Goddammit," he muttered to himself, rubbing his eyes. He picked up his cracked glasses again and pushed open the door to the auditorium.

Spine walked impatiently down the aisle, shortly meeting up with Ned again. "What the fuck was THAT!?" Ned asked, "Are you okay? Did that hurt?"

"No," said Spine, "But I have a stinging pain in my forehead. What do we do now?"

"I have an idea," Ned whispered, "What if you destroy the rabbit first? Maybe it won't try to kill you!" "What if the bear attacks me?" Spine countered. "That's easy!" Ned stated, "Just find something to kill BOTH of them!"

Spine squinted, running the ideas through his head. He sighed. "I guess that'll have to do," he agreed, "Stay here, I'll go find something in the closet."

Within five minutes, Spine reemerged from the supply closet with the hammer in his right hand and a crowbar in his left. "This should do the trick," he said to himself, knowing Ned couldn't hear him from where he was standing. Spine approached the stage, both tools in hand, and began quietly aiming with his eyes at where he wanted to strike. He took a chance, and lugged the hammer at the rabbit's face, immediately startling her and making her fall backwards. She prepared to get up, but Spine jumped on her, snatched the hammer, and began bashing her innards with it. A pained shriek emitted from the beast as he relentlessly tore at her torso.

His eyes shot to the bear, who had turned into a ferocious and horrific beast. She approached slowly but silently, to which Spine responded by getting off the rabbit and plowing the crowbar into her eye. The monstrous creature gave a similar cry to the rabbit's, and ripped the crowbar from its now empty socket. She threw the crowbar to the ground, leaving an ear-splitting CLANK bouncing off the walls and sending a chill through Spine's veins. Just as it began trudging towards Spine, he tore the hammer from the rabbit's dismantled stomach and began beating the monster with it. Countless grunts of power spilled from Spine's gut as the hammer buried deeper and deeper into the mechanical's bear's components. Sparks, washers and bolts flew everywhere as Spine continuously hacked at her face and chest, tearing through clothing, its flesh, and framework. She gave another tormented shriek, and her eyes darkened. She fell, dead, to the floor, and Spine gave her a few more whacks just to be sure. After that, he continued to beat the rabbit until he was certain getting up was impossible.

Spine looked up, ferocious. His chest heaved wheezy breaths as his asthma kicked in. He dropped his hammer, and stood at the edge of the stage.

"GET IN HERE AND TRY TO KILL NED NOW, YOU BLACK, MASK-WEARING WHORES!"

Ned's gaze turned to Spine, whose forehead was drenched in sweat, his glasses cracked and his eyes dilated and dizzy. His chest heaved and small wheezes continued to crawl out his mouth while he stood, waiting for Ned's sister and her bitches to come kill him.

As if on cue, his sister and her friends came walking in, arms outstretched and their masks filthy. They reached for Ned, grabbed him, and brought him to the stage where the destroyed remnants of the yellow bear and golden rabbit remained. Confused, the black figures looked at each other, not knowing what to do in case of a situation like this.

"Not so high and mighty now, are you, asshole?" Spine asked frustratedly.

The figure wearing the fox mask became angry, and seemed to order something to the other three. They all arranged themselves so each one got one of Ned's limbs, and the figure with the fox mask leaned in and whispered to Ned.

"Whether or not the monsters remain, we will KILL YOU!"

They all tugged on Ned at once, and the poor ghost shrieked as his limbs were being slowly severed by four relentlessly vengeful figures. Their grip was tight, and their stance was intimidating. Spine could only watch in paralyzed horror as he watched Ned be physically ripped apart. Just when one of his legs was stripped off of him, everything went dark.

Spine woke up again, but his glasses were on his face. He sat up wearily and observed his surroundings. A sharp pain stabbed his head, but he tried to pretend like it wasn't there. He noticed a young boy, white as a ghost, sitting in the corner. Spine managed to stand himself up, and he traversed over to where the boy sat.

"Ned?" Spine asked, "Is that you? It's me, Spine!"

The ghost slowly lifted his head. His empty eye sockets widened, and his eyelids slowly closed and opened again. After surveying the room, he lunged into Spine and hugged him tightly. Tears fell from his eyes; real ones.

"Thank you SO much…"

That was all he said. Nothing more NEEDED to be said.

Spine smiled and hugged Ned. He did it. He finally freed him from thirty years of death and despair.

"Wait…" Spine said, momentarily breaking the emotion, "Why did you survive when they were tearing you apart?"

Ned looked up at Spine with his head on his chest. He shrugged, but the smile on his face persisted. "I guess I 'woke up' when I felt the most frightened," Ned explained, "I was startled...I didn't expect that to happen...it was so scary, it must have made the dream stop."

Spine sighed. "I guess," he said, still not really comprehending what just happened, "I'm just...I'm happy you're okay."

Ned exhaled in a long relaxed state. "I can't thank you enough for your kindness."

Spine felt his body relax, and he closed his eyes. Everything seemed to fade away, even through closed eyelids, but it did so softly, much unlike all the other times he disappeared from the conjured world. Tension decreased and flowed out of his body like an open wound as his spiritual embodiment faded away.

 **"I will come back...I ALWAYS do..."**

"Ahh…" Spine moaned as he rubbed his forehead. His fingers ran over a huge lump smack in the middle of it. He pulled his hand away, and winced as red liquid dripped all over it.

"That's not good," Spine groaned.

"You're awake! Thank God," cried a female voice, "For a second there, I thought I had killed you!"

Spine lifted up his weary physical body. "Ow," he kept repeating. His eyes opened a bit wider, and he saw Clickbait kneeling in front of him. His eyes were pointed right at her crotch. "Wha...happen?"

"When you walked into the building, I whacked you in the face with a pipe!" Clickbait admitted without remorse. A smile was laid obviously across her cheeks.

"You...asshole…" Spine groaned, his pain too throbbing to yell, "Why...the fuck...did you do that?"

"You SAID that if you got knocked out, you'd be able to visit the spirit world!" Clickbait explained, "But I thought you'd be scared if you knew it was coming, so I did it by surprise! I did it to save you some anxiety!"

"Yeah, thanks," Spine moaned, wiping his bloody hand on his pants, "But now I have this big-ass lump on my face! How the hell am I gonna hide this from my mom and dad!?"

"Relax," Clickbait told him, "Just tell them the floors got waxed and you fell because you were chasing someone out."

Spine thought for a moment. "I **GUESS** ," he agreed. He tried to get up on his feet, but fell. His legs were just too weak.

"Ah! Let me help!" Clickbait cried as Spine hit the floor. "No, no," Spine told her, "I got this." He tried to get up again and slipped on his own foot.

"On second thought, please help me into my chair. Thanks."

Clickbait grabbed him from under his arms and dragged him into his swivel seat just a room away. He was a bit heavier than expected, but she managed to lift him into the chair without any real problems. "There," she panted, "You alright?"

Spine sniffed. "My head really hurts," he moaned.

"I'm sorry," Clickbait apologized. It seemed oddly genuine. "Oh! Did you see any ghosts when you passed out?"

Spine sighed and sucked in a breath through clenched teeth. Every heartbeat felt like needles shooting through his skull. "I saw...a little boy. Said he was having a nightmare. I helped him wake up..."

Clickbait's expression suddenly became hopeful. "What was the little boy's name?"

Spine thought for a moment, his thoughts only being blocked by the throbbing, pulsing pain oozing within his mind.

"Ned," he struggled.

Clickbait gasped. "That was my SON'S name!" she cried happily, "OH MY GOD! HE'S OKAY! THANK YOU! Did he say anything about me?"

Spine winced. "Please…" he moaned, "Be quiet. My head is KILLING me…"

Clickbait covered her mouth. "Sorry!" she said again, "I'll stop talking! It's just...I'm so EXCITED! My baby boy is STILL OKAY after all these years! Thank GOD!"

"Clickbait…" Spine groaned.

"Sorry!" she apologized for the last time, "I'll shut up! I'll just move into another room until it's time for you to go!" She quickly got up and seemed to bound happily out of the room. "Thanks again!" she called from outside the window of his office. Spine responded with a pained groan as Clickbait continued hopping through the building.

"Fuck…" Spine grumbled. He put his hand to his forehead again and pulled it back. The bleeding was slowing down, but the cut still hurt nonetheless. Touching it only seemed to worsen the stinging sensation that tortured him. He hadn't even seen it in the mirror, and he was already convinced it was worse than it felt.

The teen groaned in agony. "Maybe I can convince mom and dad I dyed my hair permanent rose."

 **That's it for chapter three! Don't worry, guys, Spine is neither dead nor in a coma! So don't you dare start theorizing that bullshit. Also, feel free to message me if you have suggestions and/or just want to strike up a friendly conversation with me! It's highly likely I'll respond to you! Thanks for reading! Chapter four will be posted next Saturday!**


	5. Chapter 4: Marilyn

Spine's parents were uncertain if their son was telling the truth when he came in, a huge lump swollen onto his forehead with a bleeding crack straight down the middle and told them he had slipped on the newly-waxed floors. Regardless, they were both concerned and helped him heal the stabbing pain. The swelling went down quicker than expected, and Spine was well enough to return to work the next night.

"Be careful!" his mother warned him.

"Sure," Spine replied, "Just as long as I don't get hit with an-I mean, slip on any floors! Heh…"

He wasn't so sure he had them fooled…

Clickbait waited patiently at the door for Spine to walk in. The robotic abomination stood with her feet firmly planted onto the greasy, old flooring of the horror attraction. Her hands nervously fiddled with one another.

She wasn't quite sure if it was her excitement to see her children again or Spine's willingness to cooperate with her regardless of the abuse he suffered, but so far he seemed like a fair partner to work with. Unfortunately, partnership wasn't looking too good for her considering the last work partner she had…

Nevertheless, she liked Spine. He was nice enough to talk to her about whatever she wanted and was eager to help. But best of all, it seemed as though he wasn't superficial. Every time he talked to her, it was always face-to-face conversation, as though her horrifically mangled or otherwise unnervingly happy expression didn't bother him in the slightest. He didn't even stare at her breasts or her thighs; it was ALWAYS face-to-face.

And, as little as that mattered, it meant much to Willow.

She smiled.

She was anxious for him to come in, however, because she was afraid he was going to yell at her...or worse...for hitting him with a pipe. Which was understandable; what sane person hits another with a fucking metal pipe? But the other thought was revenge. She already had someone breathing down her neck, tormenting her, she didn't need another one.

These thoughts cycled through her psyche relentlessly until the door opened and she stood perfectly still until she was sure whoever was coming in was Spine. It was, and he had a bandage stuck firmly onto the center of his forehead.

Clickbait stepped up and gave a weak wave. "Hey," she said. Spine looked her way. "Yo," he replied. He promptly walked into his office, not saying another word. Clickbait followed, her joints still creaking and groaning.

"Look," she said, rubbing her arm, "I know that what I did last night was fucked up. I'm sorry. I'm REALLY sorry."

Spine glanced at her with an angered glare. "Sorry ain't gonna cut it, LADY," he snapped, "You hit me with a FUCKING PIPE! And I had to show up to school LATE with a BIG ASS LUMP on my face because Mom and Dad took me to the doctor to check for brain injuries!"

Clickbait looked away. She bit her lip, not knowing how to respond.

Spine sighed. He didn't say any more either. Enough had been said, he thought. He whipped out his phone and began playing a game when he heard Clickbait not-so silently approaching. He turned around.

"I'm sorry...I won't do it again…" Clickbait promised, "What can I do to make it up to you?"

Spine pushed up his glasses. "Don't ever knock me out again!" he ordered. "Yes!" Clickbait replied, "I can do that! Uh...sorry, again…"

Spine sniffed. "Okay," he said, "We're good now."

Clickbait slumped next to his swivel seat and sighed. "Thank you," she said happily, "But how am I going to be able to contact my children now?"

Spine shrugged. "I dunno," he admitted, "But don't you dare knock me out again." He flipped out the camera system to make sure nothing was coming in.

Clickbait huffed. "Okay," she sighed. She thought for a while about what she could possibly do to conjure her children without touching Spine.

"Hey!" Spine said, snapping his fingers, "I got an idea! What if I look up ways to conjure spirits on my phone?"

"You can't do that on a phone," Clickbait argued, "What are you, from the future or something?"

"Actually, yes," Spine countered, switching on his phone and entering the internet app, "Thirty years, to be exact. I have all the knowledge I'll ever need on this one device in the palm of my hand!"

"Your eyes must have evolved, too," Clickbait said, squinting at the screen, "All I see is a white square that says "No Internet"."

"What?" Spine asked. He looked at his phone, and angrily groaned at the lack of wireless internet he was receiving. "Fuck! Sorry, one second," he said, "These things take forever to gather a signal." He held it up, hoping to at least capture one second for using Google.

The green-haired teen slid out of his chair, and walked out of the office, all the while smacking the side of the phone with his palm to see if there were any internal issues. Clickbait got up and followed, her joints noisily popping and grunting with every little movement. The duo wandered through the attraction, stopping in a corner every so often to try and receive a signal, to which Clickbait would ask if Spine had any internet. The answer was always no.

Then suddenly, just as they walked past the exit, Spine's phone shut off. "GODDAMMIT!" he cried. He violently began hitting the device with his hand, desperately attempting to gather any sign of life at all. Clickbait watched nervously, having seen no one angry but herself for over thirty years.

And goddamn, was it scary.

Finally, Spine shouted briefly and stuffed the phone in his pocket. "It's out of FUCKING battery," he growled, "Let's go."

"Hang on!" Clickbait told him, grabbing his shoulder, "Go where? We still need to find internet!"

"There IS no internet," Spine informed her, "And even if there WAS, my battery's dead. And I don't have a charger, so we're just fucked. That's it, we're fucked."

Clickbait looked at him disappointedly. "Well...when you DO get a signal, will you look up how to conjure dead people? Please?"

"Sure," Spine agreed, "Why not? I got nothin' better to do."

They began heading back when Spine began feeling light-headed. His chest heaved, and he broke into a cold sweat. He finally realized what was happening when he saw blaring red lights down the hallway: the ventilation had stopped working. He was beginning to die from a lack of oxygen.

"Clickbait!" Spine gasped, "G-go to the...the office...p-press a button...on the maintenance panel…"ventilation"...help me…"

He dropped to the floor, his mind squishy with a lack of air. "Spine!" Clickbait cried, dropping to her knees and picking up his head, "Are you okay? What's going on!?"

Spine's eyes began rolling back. Just before they did, he pointed to the office and gasped "No air." Then his eyes closed and he became limp.

"Fuck!" Clickbait cried in a state of panic, "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! What do I do!?" On the one hand, this felt like it should have been a good thing considering she wanted so badly to hear from her dead children, but then again not doing anything at all would cause Spine to die...the only one willing to help!

"Screw it!" Clickbait yelled. She decided to take Spine out of the building where air was plentiful, so she threw her arms under his shoulders and dragged him as quickly as she could to the entrance just a room or two away. Heaving struggled and wheezy breaths, Clickbait's progress was slow, but she was definitely managing to get farther than she would have thought. Her metal feet grinded and Spine's body scraped roughly along the greasy, cracked flooring as the red light became more intense with every struggled footstep. "Hang in there, kiddo," she would say to him, of course meeting with absolutely no response.

Finally, she reached the exit door, where she momentarily let go of Spine to push open the door. However, an unfortunate fact she had entirely forgotten was that she was incapable of opening the doors to the outside. Her hands firmly pressed against the handle labeled "PUSH", but all that happened was a cold shock was sent coursing through her empty veins. She jumped back, letting out a startled cry. Her eyes widened and she shook her head side to side as she realized she was just about to let someone die.

"Oh my god," she whispered, "I can't get him out! He's going to die! NOO! HELP!"

"There's no help for you anymore, Mrs. Afton," a smug voice informed her, "This child-someone ELSE'S-child is going to perish due to lack of oxygen, and it's ALL. YOUR. FAULT!"

"No!" Clickbait cried, "No! NO! I...I CAN'T let a child die!" She looked down, viewing her hands that were filthy with dried blood. Her hands clamped tightly into fists. "Not again."

"You have no choice!" the voice told her, "And now your little conjurer of spirits-your NEW accomplice of which to betray-is going to be with ME!"

Clickbait shook. Anger surged through her like the cold shot through her muscles. Her eyes opened, her pupils dilated and pin pricked, yet her hands remained in the form of fists.

"How does it feel," the voice asked, "To be totally helpless? To have the whole world against you? To have your one and only friend die on you after so much trauma?"

"SHUT UP!" Clickbait screamed, "SHUT THE GODDAMN FUCK UP! I'M THROUGH WITH THIS!" She angrily ran into the office, picked up the swivel seat and heaved it at the exit door. A deafening crash sounded as the plastic seat shattered against the door, leaving a gash in the metal but not doing much else. Clickbait let out another tortured shriek as she clawed at her head.

"Had enough?" the voice asked, "Because **I** don't think so!"

Clickbait snarled, a loud roar emitting from her nose. She looked down at Spine, pathetically laid down on the ground with all his muscles stiff. His skin grew increasingly pale, the only color now visible on him was the green dye soaked into the droopy bangs of his hair. His lungs quaked within his ribcage, showing faint signs of life within an otherwise lifeless corpse.

Wait...LIFE!

" **I** think I HAVE!" Clickbait yelled. She picked up Spine under his arms again and dragged him to the door. She hurriedly grabbed his wrist and pushed it down onto the handle of the exit door. To her great surprise, she was able to open the door and quickly threw the boy out. His body let out a THUD! as it hit the pavement, but at least he could breathe now.

The door slammed in front of Clickbait's face, once again sending a shiver down her spine, but making her want to cheer as she realized she saved the boy's life. "HA!" she yelled, "I DID it! I SAVED him! Take THAT, whoever the fuck you are!"

The lights flickered. "You don't even remember who I AM!?" asked the voice, "I'm MARILYN! That girl you tortured for YEARS without even a THANK YOU to cope with it!" The voice seemed to boom from the speakers hung up with loose wires in the corners between the ceiling and the walls. "I wasn't even PAID! I was made to look like you, ACT like you, TALK like you and MURDER PEOPLE! You ruined my FUCKING LIFE!

"And now," Marilyn, the voice's owner, growled, "I'm going to ruin your DEATH!"

Clickbait shook in place. Her past had literally come back to haunt her. All the lights around her violently flickered and died. All that remained was the red light blinking on the wall opposite of the office and the buzzing noise of the cameras shutting off. She gulped.

"Help…" she whimpered.

A footstep clanked down the hallway.

"...Please?"

A force that felt somewhat like water tore Clickbait's jaw in half and slid down her throat, singing her esophagus and burning her lungs as it poured swiftly into her. She gurgled and gasped as the force continued debilitating her until she collapsed lifeless onto the floor.

"Spine! Spine, wake up, you knucklehead!"

Spine felt himself being shaken violently by a pair of gentle hands. It was none other than Avigan, his boss. She had a look of concern yet an aura of benevolence around her. Spine's groggy eyes could make a faint outline of her shiny orange hair and her vibrant eyes.

"Nnnh…" Spine groaned, putting a hand to his head, "Sorry, Avigan...I fell asleep...wha happen?"

"Fell asleep!?" she asked, a short, anxious laugh following the question, "You're OUTSIDE! Are you a sleepwalker or something!? What happened to YOU?"

Spine smacked his lips. His mouth was unusually dry. "I...I dunno. I was just...uh...in my office. And...I fell asleep." He didn't know if his being outside had something to do with Clickbait, but if it did, he decided not to reveal her just in case Avigan thought he was crazy. It DID sound a little far-fetched…

"Sorry," he apologized again. "Wait, what happened to your head?" Avigan asked, pointing at the bandage smack in the middle of his forehead. "I...I tripped..." Spine lied.

"Nevermind," Avigan said impatiently, "You abandoned your post! I SHOULD fire you for this...then again, we DO need you here. Nobody else would take the job...but be more careful next time! Your oxygen ran out inside and now our lead has been tampered with!"

"She what?" Spine asked, "What happened to her?" Avigan shrugged. "I dunno, I just found her face-down on the ground next to your office!"

"Oh, no," Spine gasped. He darted to the door, his legs buckling beneath him. He tried to pay no attention to it, though, and instead busted into the attraction with a stance much like a puppet's.

There, on the floor, was Clickbait, left on the ground with a huge gash in the back of her suit. Her eyes were rolled back and her mouth was torn in half. Teeth, blood and miniscule bolts laid the floor as Spine beheld the horrible creature's demise.

"No!" Spine cried, putting his hands to his mouth. Avigan came up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder. "It's alright, Spine," she said, "No need to be so extra, we can just put 'er back together and fix the door. Nothing was stolen...just fucked up. It's okay."

Despite Avigan's words, the situation was NOT okay. Clickbait looked to be "dead" dead. Nothing looked salvageable; her body was crushed and torn in several places. Her death appeared to be extremely painful, the absolute worst way to go if he ever saw it.

Spine swallowed, trying to hide his emotion as best he could. He knew he had only known Clickbait for just a day or two, but he knew her goals, her story and her life within that time he had. He knew she had things she had done and things she wanted to do. She was taken too soon and so were her children. He was the only bridge between her and her children, and now it didn't matter.

He failed.

He swallowed again and forced a smile. "Yeah," he said, his voice shaky, "I...I guess it is okay." He sniffed. "I'm going home." He turned and walked away, his head down and his hands moving about his face. Avigan watched as he walked back home, stopping him before he left the parking lot.

"Hey," she said, her hand on his shoulder once again, "I know I'm just your manager and not your therapist or whatever, but is something wrong? You seem really upset about something…"

Spine wiped his nose and blushed. "It's nothing," he insisted, "Fuck off."

Avigan sighed. "It's the rabbit thing, isn't it?"

Spine's eyes opened wide. "What?"

"Yeah," Avigan said, nodding, "I knew she was alive. She would talk to me when I was the only one in the building. She would poke fun at me by not moving when I was lookin' at her, then move when I looked away...she was a friend of sorts. I know it SOUNDS fuckin' crazy, and you probably don't believe me...but...I hope she's not dead…" She looked down at her shoes, her fingers now fiddling with each other in anxiety.

Spine's interest was peaked. He looked down, and saw both of them were on the grassy curb with enough room to fit a sofa.

"Sit down," he told her. Avigan did, and he sat down with her. He took in a deep breath, sighed and aimed his eyes directly to hers.

"Her name is Clickbait. I know a LOT about her."

 **That's a wrap for this week! Sorry to tell you guys this, but there may not be a new chapter next week :( I gotta...uh...help my mom...move...yeah, that's what I'm doing...um, anyway! Feel free to message me about anything because I'm extremely likely to reply! See you in another two weeks! Again, so sorry for this. Catch y'all on the flipside!**


	6. Chapter 5: Jared

The room was dark. A light shower poured outside and softly tapped upon the windowsill. Drops from leaves slowly dribbled down the foliage and plopped onto the sidewalk and grass. That was the only sound heard beyond the ceaseless groaning of the building and the pitter-patter of mouse feet skittering about the wide, empty floor. Silence that scorched the soul of the average mortal being.

All but one.

A figure shoved a metal door open, and it creaked and screamed as it toppled onto its side with only one hinge to save it at the last second. Water droplets sprayed everywhere as the metal entrance gave way to the mysterious, shadowy presence.

"Oops," it said.

The figure removed his hood, revealing pale orange hair and a face that appeared distorted by stress. He breathed in and sighed, taking in the musty odor of the wet, partially flooded area. "Just as I remember it," he said emotionlessly, "Except a lot more moist and abandoned."

The figure continued walking through the empty building, footsteps splashing through shallow puddles and dodging leaky pipes, searching for something. Something lost.

Something near and dear to him.

The figure's shadow appeared on the wall as an angry monster although his body language spoke completely otherwise. He was defeated, his back hunched and his cheeks weak from years of forgetting to smile. The black figure upon the wall looked like a version of the boogeyman straight out of a child's nightmare, looming over as though it were preparing to snack on whoever was below the beast.

The man stopped abruptly, meeting a wall. Looking down, there was a young child, crumpled against the wall. It wasn't an ACTUAL child, though; it was an android. An android made to look human, act human, and BE human. The manufacturers had succeeded, although now the bot was unused and looked like something dragged out from the scrap heap and beaten with sticks. What was once soft and beautiful skin had been whitened and made crumbly if it hadn't already been chewed off by the mice who resided there. The eyes were foggy and colorless, one lying on the floor and the other hanging out by one frail wire. The mouth was agape, teeth missing from every hole in her jaw piece. The hair had disintegrated after thirty years and the human was now left looking as though she had perished of cancer. A pale blue and red propeller beanie rested atop her skull, which was missing the propeller and was chipped in several places. Her clothes were tattered and ripped, revealing a body that the man had definitely been familiar with before. Her shoes were gone, exposing her robotic feet and wiry framework beneath the skin. Shreds of a mysterious white fabric littered the floor around her. A vine had also grown around her neck, choking her into the concrete walls of the factory.

The man knelt down and stroked her chin. Flakes of her skin shed off onto the man's fingers, which he disgustedly wiped onto his pants. He sighed. "Guess you're not going to talk to me, are you?" The robot girl said nothing in reply.

The man groaned as he got up. His joints ached and his back wasn't doing much better. His teeth grinded and he exhaled loudly enough for the sound to scratch the walls and sink into the floor. He sniffed and made his way to another part of the building.

A rusty door squeaked open. The man walked through, and didn't stop until he reached another broken robot. This one was more frightening in appearance than the girl, but the man remembered fondly the time they met each other's gaze.

"Oh, Jasper," he sighed, "It's been so long...I wish I could go back to the good old days..."

He scratched his chin and sniffed again. His eyes shifted from the disgusting mass of a twisted, broken puppet on the floor to the rest of the massive room. Gigantic pipes lined the walls and countless useless wires hung lifelessly from the ceiling. Water droplets fell in from holes in the roof and moss covered nearly every square inch of the abandoned factory. Taps echoed from the floor where the rain hit the mossy tiles.

The man sighed. "Well," he said, turning around, "If anybody else is here, I'm sorry this happened. I knew I should have picked you up last second...but my opportunity is gone now. Sorry." His eyes reddened, and he wiped his nose. He breathed in, taking in the damp, filthy air of the fungi-infested workplace and exhaled it all out at once. "Goodbye."

The man began to walk away, stepping out into the hallway once again. He neglected the busted girl in case emotion decided to tackle him. He couldn't handle another heartbreak.

As he was about to exit the building, a door creaked open behind him. Instinctively, the man looked back but thought nothing more of the strange occurrence. He shook his head, wiped the corners of his eyes and turned back to leave.

The man exited the building and was prepared to get back in his car to head home and hope something killed him on the way. His eyes were watery, which he insisted on telling himself was because of the rain. He wiped his eyes once again, then opened them to find a woman staring at him from the parking lot. She wore little more than a purple tank top and mini skirt, clearly visible in the surrounding foliage of the lot.

"Hello!" the man called, wiping his eyes again to prevent any signs of sadness. He knew nobody probably cared, which was the norm at this point, but he still did it anyway. The woman said nothing, and instead stared right at him with blank eyes and a disappointed frown.

"Hello?" he called again. The rain came down just a little harder since he had walked in, making the outline of the woman even more visible. She stood still, her clothes wet and dripping.

"...Hello?" he tried one last time. This time, the woman began a slow pace towards him with an emotionless expression now plastered across her face. Her purple hair danced behind her as she walked.

"Hi!" the man said, "I'm sorry, I was just walking in to check some stuff out! Really, I'm going home right now!"

The woman blinked, still saying nothing. "I know you."

The man gulped. "You do?"

"Yes," she said, her voice deathly calm, "I've heard MUCH about you."

The man tugged at his collar. "How much about me?"

"Enough to base an opinion," she said.

The man had no idea how to respond.

"You're Jared, right?" she asked, "Jared Fitzpatrick?"

The man's red eyes widened. "Yeah!" he confirmed, "Yeah, I'm Jared!"

"You used to work for Willow," she said, her voice still slicing calmly through the snipping rain.

"Uhh...yeah!" Jared said, scratching his chin, "Yeah, I did!...What about it?"

The woman smiled. "Did she force you to work for her?"

"No," Jared said, "I applied."

The woman's smile faded, but didn't disappear. "But she DID keep you after hours, right?"

"No!" Jared said, "Oh, HELL no! Willow let me go when I was supposed to!"

The woman's smile was totally gone. "So I can assume she didn't beat you, either?"

Jared's expression turned to disgust. "What kind of relationship do you think I HAD with this woman!?" he asked.

The woman groaned angrily. "The same one **I** had with her."

Jared's eyes widened again. "She...she did THAT to you!?"

"YES!" the woman shouted, "She did! She kidnapped me! She starved me! She...she almost KILLED ME!"

Jared blinked. "Woah, okay! Sorry!" he cried, his hands up, "I didn't know she did that to you! Calm down!"

"OH, FUCK BEING CALM!" the woman yelled, "YOU try being calm after realizing life is pointless and after death all you get is the ability to make people think they're hallucinating!"

"I...I do agree with the 'life is pointless' part," Jared agreed, "But how do you know what happens after death? Do you talk to spirits?"

The woman grabbed his shoulders and stared him right in the eye. "DON'T YOU SEE!? DO I HAVE TO SPELL IT OUT FOR YOU!?" she shouted, "I'M **DEAD**! I'm a GHOST!"

Jared gasped. In the blink of an eye, the woman's skin turned from pale to bloody and scarred. Her wrists were slit wide open and her neck looked broken. Her clothes were tattered, showing much more thigh and belly than she was before. Her teeth were crooked, and they were made extremely apparent every time she opened her mouth. She was heaving sharp, pained breaths which expelled dribbles of blood from her quivering jaw. Her filthy nails dug into Jared's shoulders and he winced as he felt the pain seize him.

"I'm dead," the woman repeated, "I killed myself. I couldn't do it anymore." She sighed. Tears fell from her eyes and the rain washed them away momentarily. "I had a family...I had a brother...a mom and a dad...even a cute little dog. And all that is gone now. I...I can't…" She shut her eyes tight and fought back her tears to remain serious. "I was sixteen when I was kidnapped. I went to my friend's house and never came back home. She threatened me to death if I refused to help her with her bidding!

"Jared... **I** was the Willow you saw." Jared's jaw dropped. "Y...you were...you…"

"That's right," the woman snarled, " **I** was that pleasant little woman with a hot body you admired. Willow would have fucking MURDERED you if she caught you staring at her ass. **I** had to take care of the business while she kicked back and did nothing. I almost lost my GODDAMN EYE to a machine once and Willow didn't even shrug at me. She just watched me bleed and walked away."

Jared put a hand to his head. "Jesus...that must really suck to be stuck here for eternity…"

"I'm not," the woman said, "I am limited to where Willow is and where I died. That's it."

"Ohh," Jared said, "Well, where's Willow now?"

"That's what I want your help with," the woman grinned, "I'm going to show you where Willow is and you burn that motherfucker to the ground. Only then will I be freed!"

Jared gulped. "Well...I hate to ask, but...what do **I** get out of it?"

The woman took a hand off of his shoulder and put it to her chin in thought. "Considering I want to be a better person than she would ever hope to be, I'm not going to use 'or else' as motivation…" she mused, "What is it you desire?"

"I want to be happy," Jared said solemnly, "I was diagnosed with depression a long time ago as a result of trauma. It's...hard to talk about."

"I understand," the woman told him, "Fortunately, I think I can do that if this task is complete. Will you help me?"

Jared stared her right in her bloodshot, ghostly eyes. His face was wet with rain water and a confident but serious expression lay obviously upon him. His fists tightened, and he swallowed in a sharp intake of air before answering.

"Yes."

 **o**

"God...you sound like a crazy person!"

"I know," Spine sighed, "And, trust me, it's hard enough for ME to believe. It's so fucking bizarre, I just assumed no one would think I was sane. Hell, **I** don't even have faith in my own mental health anymore!"

"Me either," Avigan agreed, "I mean, a woman inside a robot who walks around when nobody's looking who seeks to avenge her children and their friends while enduring the wrath of a previous member of her workplace that wants her to suffer till the end of eternity? That sounds like something straight out of a mental patient's mouth!"

"Or some horny, desperate teenager," Spine murmured under his breath.

"What was that?" Avigan asked. "Nothing!" Spine answered quickly. He cleared his throat.

"Anyway," Avigan sighed, "I'm glad I'm not crazy! Thank god. I was actually questioning myself for a second there!

"And I bet she really appreciates you helping her find her children." "Oh, believe me, she does," Spine said, nodding his head and smiling, "She's definitely willing to do anything to see them again!"

"Well," Avigan shrugged, "Hopefully that day will come eventually. For now, though, I think you have to get home and go to school, don't you?"

"Yeah, you're right," Spine groaned, "I totally forgot to study for that exam in biology! Ugh...well, I hope it was time well-spent." Avigan put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sure that it was."

Spine smiled, got up and headed home.

 **Thank you all for being so patient! This was actually written in the spare time I had in between...projects...so if it seems a little short and/or rushed, that's why. I also want to emphasize that I'm still 100% open for requests and/or messaging if you so desire, and I'll most likely message you back (you know...if you have an ACCOUNT). That being said, thanks again and I'll try to post another chapter next Saturday!**


	7. Chapter 6: The End

Clickbait's eyes were rolled slowly back into place. Her jaw was realigned and her back was straightened out again. Her body was renewed.

She coughed, choking up a vile substance and spitting it onto the floor, leaving a nasty red stain that wouldn't get wiped out regardless of how many bottles of floor cleaner you used. She sniffed and vomited again, leaving a gaping hole where her stomach was, and it would remain that way forever.

Shivering, Clickbait stood up. Her legs vibrated, sending a clicking sound running through the hallway as her thick hips buckled under her out of disgust and shock. She smacked her lips, or at least her artificial ones belonging to her mask, and clutched her waist, groaning.

She looked up to see Spine with an utterly horrified expression taking up every square inch of his face.

"...Oops," Clickbait squeaked, embarrassed.

"Holy shit," Spine managed after a minute of watching Clickbait wrestle with her own impulses, "Are you okay?" Clickbait choked again, but nothing came up. "Fine, fine," she lied. She gagged again, and felt her whole body tense. She retched and crumpled onto the floor. She cried out as her body hit the tiles, but was silent otherwise. "I'm...f-fine…" she insisted.

"You sure as hell are NOT!" Spine argued, "First you puke up your fucking organs, and now you're crippled on the floor! You are NOT fine!"

Clickbait coughed. "Maybe you're right…" she moaned, "I'm in bad condition. I...I feel weaker than I did yesterday…"

"You do. Speaking of yesterday," Spine said, "I really appreciate that you got me out of here in time for me to revive. Thanks for that."

Clickbait forced a smile, but her insides forced it back into a pained, cramped frown. "You're welcome," she shuddered. She put a hand to her head and left it there, her fingers carefully treading her yellow, moldy flesh.

Spine sat down next to her. "Damn, what happened to you while I was gone?" he asked, careful not to touch her. The robotic trash pile blinked and moaned. "I...I remember...the lights went out...and my body was flooded with a...with a weird, water-like subst-" She stopped for a moment to cough. "...substance. Then...everything went black. And...I saw…"

She sniffed. "I saw my daughter. Yes, my...my youngest daughter. She's okay." She forced another smile, but regardless of her pain, this one stayed. "She's okay...she forgives me…"

"Wha?" Spine asked, "What do you mean, 'forgives you'? What could you possibly do that warrants your own daughter's disapproval?"

Clickbait tried to sit up, and though painful, she toughed through it and succeeded. "I was never there for her."

"Oh, Jesus Christ," Spine groaned, "Don't beat yourself up over it, Click. That's basically every kid's complaint, is that their mom or dad was nev-"

"You don't understand," Clickbait said, holding up a hand with a pointed finger, "I was LITERALLY never there for her.

"When my daughter was born, I had already kidnapped a girl from a neighborhood who had previously worked with the company I ruled. She had worked there a year before but quit because of me. I forced her back into labor and threatened to kill her if she didn't do all the work I assigned her. And she did...for ten whole years before she killed herself.

"When she did, I was forced to continue all the dirty work I had her do when she was alive. I had her kidnap my friend's son, I had her steal from other people and even injure a few folks, but I never asked her to kill anybody. I was insane, but I wasn't evil. Heartless, maybe, but not evil.

"Anyway, I digress; I had HER take care of all of my children FOR me. My youngest daughter was always very suspicious of that girl; she kept insisting, 'You're not my mom, you're not my REAL parent!'. And she only knew my face by looking at pictures I believed hidden years ago.

"I came back every so often, of course; it was MY house, **I** bought it, raised three kids in it and lived in it for years. I got her to tend to them when I was kept busy with a project, which I often was...and I hate myself for letting all that work prioritize itself over my own flesh and blood.

"The point is, she's okay and she forgives me. And that's all that matters." She sniffled.

Spine blinked. "Shit…" he said softly, "I...why did...how could you…" He wasn't quite sure what questions to ask. Are you fucking crazy? was one of them. How the hell could you be so careless!? was another. But all his questions would do would probably weaken Clickbait's mental state, and she was already pretty dilapidated in that category. So all he did was sigh and gently put a hand on the crumpled rabbit's shoulder. "I'm glad she's okay."

Clickbait smiled. "Me, too," she said contently.

The two sat quietly for a moment, contemplating the horrible, crushing truth Clickbait had been holding onto for thirty-seven years. That heavy, emotional weight had been lifted off of her shoulders, and the past was finally uncovered. Her children were all found and okay, and everything seemed to fit perfectly into place. Clickbait pondered this fact, and assumed that not long after her realization, she'd be heading to the afterlife where she would finally find peace at last. She sighed and a pleasured smile cracked into her red-tainted lips.

A light fixture nearby shook violently, split open and burst. Clickbait and Spine gasped, and they looked around for the source of the racket. Another light burst, and another. The cracking sounds ripped through the halls and shredded the ears of the two friends, whose hands were clawing at the sides of their heads and praying that awful, tearing noise would stop. After what felt like an eternity, the final fixture fell out of place and shattered onto the floor, and that was the end of it. They removed their hands and glanced nervously at the broken glass littering the floor in the dim, red light provided by the exit sign, which was now the only source of light in the entire attraction. Spine gulped anxiously and Clickbait's smile quickly faded into a dismayed and frightened expression of horror.

A figure slowly appeared, taking the form of a woman. Her hair was purple, her wrists were slit and her neck seemed crooked and dislocated in two places. Her eyes were covered by her hair and her lips were curled into an ugly grin full of decaying teeth. Blood dripped from her hands and mouth. She wore no clothing, instead revealing a horrifically skinny figure that looked like someone hastily wrapped skin around a skeleton and patched it lazily with a gluestick. Her fingers and toes were stripped to the bone as were her wrists and a few patches of her skin were falling off.

"Not so fast, Willow," the woman snarled, tilting her head up to reveal empty eye sockets with pin pricked, glowing irises sitting in the middle of the bloody holes, "You aren't going to die. You're going to suffer as I did for all eternity."

"NO!" Spine said, "NO! It's not fair, Clickbait's been through enough already! Cut her some slack!"

The teen's collar was gripped tightly by an unseen force and dragged almost instantaneously towards the ghostly figure. He gagged on his own breath as the collar was pulled tightly over his throat. He wanted to scream when he came face to face with the demon, but his lungs were empty and his throat felt ready to burst already. The woman growled at him with her rotten teeth completely visible and red in the dim lighting. Spine wanted to fight the sensation, but his body refused to listen to his brain. His instincts told him to kick, punch, shout...ANYTHING! But all he could do was look helplessly into the empty eyes of Marilyn as she choked him with his own collar.

"You shut your damn mouth," the ghost demanded. Spine choked in response.

Marilyn slammed him to the ground by the exit door and left him gulping in lost breaths while she headed straight for Clickbait. Spine watched her edge closer and closer to his friend, clearly striking terror into her from her dilated pupils and mouth wide open. A silent scream seemed to flow past her artificial jaw; no noise at all, but an obvious look of peril struck upon her.

"You…" Marilyn hissed, grinning widely, "I have been waiting...for SO FUCKING LONG...just to get my revenge on you. I can't believe it was that easy."

"Please…" Clickbait begged, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I don't wanna hurt you! I-I was-"

"LIES! ALL LIES!" Marilyn screamed, and Clickbait's body was flung to the wall as though magnets were lining the insides and she was the metal bar. A loud, choking exhale sounded from the weak rabbit the moment her body hit the tiles. "Your only intent was to HARM ME," Marilyn continued, "Why else would you do this to me!?"

Clickbait struggled to beg for mercy, but even if she could, she had the knowledge it would be utterly useless because Marilyn was out to get her and would stop at nothing to torment her.

"You beat me. You starved me. You KIDNAPPED ME," Marilyn recited, recalling each of the awful things Clickbait had done, "I had a family! I had friends! I had a motherfucking dog named Brooklyn, and now I have no FUCKING idea how she is, nor do I know how any of my acquaintances are! YOU RUINED MY WHOLE! FUCKING! **LIFE!**

"And now…" Marilyn growled, "You're in MY clutches. The puppet is in control of the master now! And I won't rest until you feel the pain I felt years before I committed suicide!"

Marilyn reached out a scrawny hand to attack Clickbait, and she tilted her head away to avoid watching herself be mutilated. Spine could only watch in horror, knowing any attempt to fight was futile. He gasped as he watched Marilyn tear off Clickbait's left arm and throw it violently onto the floor. A pained shriek crawled out of Clickbait's mouth and blasted through the empty building, emphasizing the pure agony of having a limb being ripped from the body. Marilyn gave a satisfied laugh at the torment of Clickbait, evolving from a simple chuckle to a cackle that breathed complete insanity. Clickbait put a hand to her left arm, now just a bloody stump with a protruding bone and severed nerves dangling from a meaty, metal chunk of her. She shut her eyes and screamed again, this time facing the missing limb and letting tears slip down her face.

Marilyn reached for her other arm, but was stopped when she heard laughter. She retracted her hand and immediately turned towards Spine, who was still in total shock after watching someone's arm get twisted off like a toy's. His mouth was slightly open, revealing his bottom teeth in a display of true panic and terror. Marilyn, confused, turned back towards Clickbait to finish her work, but turned again at the sound of giggling.

Spine heard rustling of metal parts. He silenced his breathing to make sure he wasn't hallucinating, and listened carefully. There WERE metal parts shifting...but where? There were subtle sounds of plastics scraping against the floor and screws falling from great heights; chunks of iron and other various metals clattering quietly together like tin cans attached to strings. He slowly felt another ghostly presence in the room; one of neither Marilyn nor Clickbait.

Somebody ELSE had joined the party…

A colossal crash came from the office adjacent to the exit door, and a robotic figure made of spare parts shambled out. Spine's eyes widened and he backed up against the wall with every step the robotic creature took. It shook in several places due to an improper building of the body. It had five heads, all of which had glowing eyes of different colors. It took a quick glance at Spine with two heads then shifted its attention to Marilyn with the other three. The robot let loose a terrifying scream, then launched itself towards the ghost with a force Spine thought implausible. The robot, surprisingly, moved swiftly and nailed Marilyn instead of going right through her as Spine expected. Marilyn cried out as the creature unleashed a flurry of attacks, including biting with three heads, kicking and punching and all sorts of different combinations of attacks. Clickbait was let down from the wall, where she bunched up and cried as she held onto the stump where her arm used to be.

Spine ran past the commotion occurring between the robot and Marilyn and dashed to where Clickbait knelt. "Oh my god!" he screamed, "Are you okay!?"

Clickbait sucked in a breath and faced Spine eye to eye. "I'm okay," she sighed. She let go of the stump for just a moment to point at the fight breaking out in front of her and behind Spine. "They're here for me now."

Spine thought for a moment, then realized what was happening.

Her children were the mechanical beast.

They were fighting the force that dared to hurt their mother and were now attacking fiercely to protect her. Not only that, but it seemed the lost souls of Candy's friends were in on the action and fighting alongside her children.

The fight didn't last long. Marilyn pushed the massive beast off of her and twisted the metal creature into a cube that wasn't much bigger than a typical ice cube, and all the while the shrieks of the innocent squealed from the twisting heap of scrap. Bolts and screws lined a twelve-inch circumference around the cube, the remnants of a once great and powerful android.

"ENOUGH!" Marilyn yelled. Smoke started pouring through the cracks in the walls, slowly being accompanied by flames. Spine yelped and hid behind Clickbait, who completely understood his fear.

Clickbait shut her eyes and sighed. She remembered how horrible she felt not being there for her children, for completely abandoning them in a way. She saw this as her one chance to make everything better and redeem herself as best she could. "I couldn't save them, Spine," she said, "But I can save you."

The broken rabbit painfully got to her feet and winced in agony. She wrinkled her nose and then heaved a heavy sigh. "Okay, Marilyn," she said, "I know this isn't going to change a damn thing, but I want you to know I'm sorry."

"If you were SORRY, THIS WOULDN'T BE HAPPENING!" Marilyn argued, her hair flowing every which way in the growing flames engulfing the building.

"I know!" Clickbait yelled, "But I wasn't right in the head! I did everything for myself and never once thought about you! I was mentally ill, I didn't CARE what you thought! But I do now, and I'm sorry!"

"YOU CAN'T PROVE THAT!" Marilyn shrieked, the flames beginning to lick at her feet and hair. "Yes, I can!" Clickbait argued, "Watch! I can do anything for you-I WILL do anything for you, if it makes up for the abuse I put you through, I'll do it!"

Marilyn stood, nostrils flaring with anger for a few moments, then bowed her head and picked it back up to reveal an ugly, pale, blue-eyed face with tears streaming down her cheeks. "I…" she said quietly amidst the fire, "...I...I wanna make amends."

Clickbait smiled. "You...you don't want to kill me?"

"Never had the balls to," Marilyn shrugged, facing away, "You were really scary."

Clickbait slowly approached the ghost, stepping into a small fire starting in the tiles. "I don't want to be that anymore," she said, "I want to be the one people think about when someone brings up 'comfort'."

Marilyn sniffed. She wiped a tear from her eye. "...I'm sorry for torturing you...I was just really mad, and...I don't wanna be that, either…"

"We don't HAVE to be," Clickbait said softly, "We can be friendly acquaintances...partners, if you will."

Marilyn's hair was almost completely in flames. She smiled. "I'd like that."

Clickbait's cheeks shone with delight. "So...that's all you wanted?"

"It's the only dream I was allowed to have," Marilyn sighed, "I didn't really have any other choice."

Clickbait stroked the ghost's cheek with a delicate finger. "I'm sorry I hindered you," she said, "I'm sorry there aren't any more opportunities to accomplish your dreams."

Marilyn sniffed. "All is forgiven."

Spine looked worriedly at the flames engulfing the building and shook in place, nearly paralyzed with disbelief and fear. He watched Clickbait and the ghost make up after so many years of being torturers and victims. Five small figures faded in, and they all grouped around Clickbait, hiding behind her. "It's okay, guys!" She said calmly, "She's a friend now."

With that, the smaller figures stared at each other, floated up and faded away.

They had passed on.

"Were those the children I killed?" Marilyn asked. Clickbait nodded. "They're gone now," she explained, wiping a boiling tear from her eye, "They came back to rescue me, but now that their souls are unrestricted from their chambers and their souls are in a physical form, their goal to save me-and themselves-was completed and they've finished off their task. They're free."

Marilyn sighed. The flames had finished singing her hair and all that was left was a short bunch of black strands strung over her scalp and dropping to the top of her neck. "I wish I could be free."

Clickbait stared her right in the eye and held her shoulder with the one hand she had. "We ARE free now, Marilyn," she explained. "We've made up. We're equals."

Marilyn smiled. "That's all I could ever hope for," she said. Her figure began to rise as well, and faded from existence.

Clickbait turned to face Spine, who was still shaking in terror and shock. She smiled his way and gave a short wave with her only hand. Spine waved weakly in return. "Thank you...for everything," she said, "Take care of yourself...and keep that boss of yours safe, too. She's a good girl…"

With that, the mechanical zombie's eyes rolled back and she fell sideways into a pit of flames. Her body burned into the flooring and Spine could do nothing but watch for the longest time while the remains of who was once a good friend were turned to molten piles of flesh and metal.

"I will, Willow," Spine promised, a tear trickling from his eye.

Suddenly aware of the danger he was in, Spine bolted back to the exit and slammed it shut. Gasping and panting in the cool night air, he whipped out his phone and immediately dialed 9-1-1.

"Hello, fire department?"

 **O O O**

The building was totally fried after the flames had been properly extinguished. Spine made it out completely okay, but he was still quite shaken from the experience.

"I have NO idea what happened," Spine told everyone, "I-I was just...working! Like I was supposed to, and, and then...then the whole building just ERUPTS into flames! I should be grateful that I didn't even get a SCRATCH during the ordeal!"

"SPINE!" cried a voice behind him. Spine turned to face Avigan, who he had called immediately after the fire department. She was running towards him with a look of horror from the other side of the parking lot. "What the fuck happened!? Are you okay!?"

"Fine, I'm fine!" Spine insisted, "The whole goddamn building set on fire and I have no idea how it happened!" Avigan groaned exasperatedly. "Goddammit!" she cried, "I TOLD them those fucking wires would set the building on fire! I TOLD them it was a real risk! Did they listen to me? NO! Of fucking COURSE not!"

"And where's Clickbait!?" she asked. Spine looked at her sadly for a moment, then bowed his head. His green bangs drooped lifelessly over his eyes. Avigan gasped. "...Dead?"

"Passed on," Spine corrected, "Believe me, she's in a better place now."

Avigan and Spine stood silently for a moment, quietly mourning Willow's end. It wasn't too terrible, though; she got exactly what she wanted and so did the rest of the children whose souls were locked in their impenetrable chambers. They were all set free...there was no way of telling where they were now, of course, but it could definitely be assumed they weren't suffering anymore.

And that's all Spine and Avigan wanted.

"Well…" Avigan sighed, "I should be happy YOU'RE alright. You were definitely our best employee." Spine smiled. "Thanks," he said. Avigan took another long glance at the pile of rubble and sighed. "My dad is gonna be SO pissed that the building burnt down."

"Why? Does he own it?" Spine asked.

"Yes," Avigan answered, "Well...USED to. Damn, the place didn't even OPEN yet."

"Yeah, that sucks…" Spine said, rubbing his arm, "...you okay?"

"I'm a bit disoriented," Avigan groaned, "I just woke up to a panicked phone call at twelve-forty-two in the morning."

"Sorry about that!" Spine shrugged. Avigan blew a strand of hair out of her eyes. "No big deal," she said, "I'm pretty sure we'll build somethin' ELSE totally worthless here. In the meantime, I guess this means you're fired. Uh...literally, in this case."

"I gathered," Spine said, nodding. "Oh! Hey, uh, before she died, Clickbait asked me to keep in touch with you."

"She did?" Avigan asked. "She said she liked you," Spine informed her, "Uh...no homo or anything."

"I knew what you meant," Avigan yawned. "Hang on...you got a phone, right?" Spine whipped out his mobile device, turning his pocket inside-out. "Okay," she said, taking hers out and swiping through some applications Spine couldn't see from his point of view. She finally found her number, and allowed Spine to copy it and paste it into his contacts.

"Thanks!"

"No prob," Avigan said, then turned to face the building again.

A figure walked out from the building who didn't look to be a part of the firemen that had gathered at the scene. He wore all black and had pale orange hair. He walked straight up to both Spine and Avigan and stared at them for quite some time.

"Which one of you almost burnt down?"

Spine slowly raised a hand, afraid to answer the question that seemingly came out of nowhere.

"Oh," the man said, "Sorry about that. I only meant to burn down that other girl…"

"Me?" Avigan asked.

"NO! No, not you!" he said, "The other one. Willow."

Spine's jaw dropped. "Wait! YOU started that fire!?" The man quickly hushed him. "Hey! I was TOLD to! Some ghost told me to in exchange for a reward!"

"Damn!" Avigan exclaimed, "That must be, like, some reward! What did they give you?"

The man smiled and leaned forward just a bit so he was eye to eye with them.

"Life."

The man promptly walked away, never to be seen by Spine or Avigan again.

Spine arrived home early, of course. He informed his parents of the disaster, to which they immediately panicked and asked him countless questions about the incident. Neither of them were prepared to hear such news; but the worst part was when he told them exactly where he was working.

"FAZBENDER'S FRIGHT!?" his father cried, "Good lord, no WONDER! That franchise was always shady and making horrible decisions! Believe me, I should know!"

"They were paying good money, and it was the only job I would take because it required the LEAST amount of effort, dad!" Spine informed him, "Working at some place like the Sub Shack or McDougal's would have broken me!"

"At least you wouldn't have been set on fire!" his mother argued. "I wasn't anyway!" Spine countered. His parents stopped and thought.

"Well...I guess you came out okay...but you really shouldn't have been working there in the first place! The things that franchise was based around were WAY too adult for someone your age!"

"I'm turning eighteen in a month!" Spine argued, "Which is legally old enough to marry and legally old enough to view adult content!"

His parents sighed. "The point is," his father said, "That place isn't safe, for your health OR your sanity. Hopefully this is the end of Fazbender enterprises FOR GOOD this time." "I hope so," agreed his mother, "I wouldn't want that franchise to continue after the horror stories risen from its lore."

"It looks to be that way," Spine said, "I hope my boss's boss focuses on another terrifying franchise to tackle with an attraction."

"Bless their souls," his father commented, a disapproving frown carved into his lips.

They sat silently for a few moments before his mother yawned and checked the clock. "It's terribly early," she sighed, "Let's all go back to bed. We'll talk more about this when we've had our coffee and are well-rested." "Agreed," yawned his father, "Let's go."

The three made their way upstairs into their bedrooms. Spine could faintly hear a conversation between his mother and father as he got ready for bed.

"How much do you wanna bet HE fucked some robots?"

"Come on, Mark! They probably didn't even HAVE any robots they could use there!"

"I guess you're right. The other buildings have probably rotted away by now. What could they possibly have salvaged besides that corpse inside a suit you and I walked in on?"

"I dunno...a Foxica mask?"

"Heh. They wouldn't know her face even if they saw it. Probably thought it was a shitty cosplay or something."

"We'll talk about this with Spine in the morning. Good night, Mark."

"'Night, Friday."

 **O o o O**

Fazbender's Fright was no longer an existing building. Within a week, all mention of the attraction had been lost and there was absolutely no trace of it left. All that remained were news stories on the web about how the place burned down and how the arsonist was still at large. Nobody witnessed anyone setting the building ablaze nor did the cameras catch anything-because they had all melted in the fire. Even the witness of the event himself denied knowing the whereabouts of the criminal.

Spine and Avigan were left jobless, and they both kept in touch for the longest time. They even found a job together and had just about the same number of shifts at the exact same time as one another. They seldom talked about Fazbender's Fright, at least in public. The very mention of it was a negative connotation, and eventually became a meme between them when they wanted to reference how literally nothing was going right and things were metaphorically going up in flames. They even secretly kept a stone in Spine's backyard with Clickbait's name on it that they called her "grave" and visited it every year following the anniversary of the building's collapse.

All that's left is just rubble. Just a variety of broken parts and smoldering rock that was excavated not too long after the blaze. There's nothing left of the franchise; there's nothing left of the story. Everything had been put together as thoroughly as it could and the tale ends as abruptly as it started. An entire section of history had been totally erased off the page and left up to the world's interpretation until everyone forgot about it and the name became nothing more than a legend. All that was left were five select people who witnessed the horror and pulled through it, and they kept quiet about it because no one would believe them if they didn't.

That's the end of everything. That's the end of the story. Spine and Avigan got together or not; that's for you to decide. Jasper went to Heaven or Hell; that's for you to decide. The franchise was risen again and made even more popular or not; that's for you to decide. Basically, all the events plotted were pieces of a puzzle with just enough gaps to imagine a completed one. The puzzle may never be whole, but it's nice to imagine you've found the correct pieces and fit them in perfectly. And though you may think you want to solve every puzzle, get the answer to every question, sometimes there are mysteries that just weren't meant to be solved and the only settling and/or comforting answer lies in one's interpretation of a subject.

At least, that's what she would have told me.

 **That's the end of Extra Sexurity 3! It was a pleasure writing this and I hope you enjoyed reading it! Or, at least...some of you. Uh, anyway! Let me know if you'd like another entry in the series and I'll be sure to get right to it as soon as I can! Once again, feel free to message me about anything, whether it's a request or you just wanna strike up a friendly conversation! It's very likely I'll respond to you. Thanks again! ;3**


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